The Lord of the Bible?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Mansun

I totally agree with the above. It appears to me that comparing the Lord of the Rings to, say the Bible, allows great minds to excercise their creative thinking & in the process open a latreal opportunity to learn new perspectives. But there will always be some who prefer to stay with the mainstream Tolkienology, believing that it is the truest & safest approach, but not as imaginative & it may even close new doors for further thought & discussion. This thread was all about opening new doors for those who want to open them, rather than those who prefer to guard the old ones & keep them locked.

I don't see it as 'learning new perspectives' so much as inventing them. No, I must correct myself there - not 'new' perspectives, but old, ancient, decrepit ones. This whole 'Finding God in the Lord of the Rings' approach has been done to death, resurrected, done to death again, resurrected again, etc, etc,etc. It is not new in any way at all. I probably have hallf a dozen books which claim to show the 'Christian' backstory of LotR (& do it very badly in most cases). Its not even interesting anymore.

Ok, let's try another tack.

Gandalf & Elrond were directly & deliberately inspired by Christ. As was Frodo & Aragorn. The Balrog was meant to be a depiction of Satan (unless Grima or Saruman was), Galadriel of the Virgin Mary, Eowyn of St Ursula, Merry of St Francis, Lobelia of St Catherine of Sienna & the fox a subtle allegory of Nebuchadnezzar.

What, exactly, has that to do with the price of fish?

Or maybe its just me. I'm sure Mansun & the other 'great minds' of this forum should be as free as possible to 'excercise their creative thinking & in the process open a latreal opportunity to learn new perspectives.'

I see that I have now joined the ranks of those who 'prefer to stay with the mainstream Tolkienology, believing that it is the truest & safest approach, but not as imaginative & it may even close new doors for further thought & discussion. This thread was all about opening new doors for those who want to open them, rather than those who prefer to guard the old ones & keep them locked.'

Ah, the radicalism of youth, when we all felt the fire in our bellies! But now we are old, & only seek to imprison the young within the cells we have created for them. We are too old & fuddled to keep up with them. They will reveal the TRUTH to us, for it is their destiny.....

(Anybody else read Logan's Run........?