Tolkien-founder of new religion?

[VanimaEdhel]

Originally Posted by daeron

(Can someone give me proper proofs of existance of giants?)

No, but I can give you evidence that disputes your friend's theory about giants building the pyramids if you so desire.

Anyway, onto the subject at hand, I am sure that by now a lot of you have heard about the Church of Scientology, established by L. Ron Hubbard in 1951. Some people consider this religion to be just a cult, others think that it is on its way to becoming an established religion. I will not give my opinion either way, since that's not important to the discussion. Anyway, the church currently reports that they have over eight million followers with over 3,000 churches and missionaries set up in over 120 countries - this is no small little organization.

If you look at the biography of Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, he was primarily known for his Science Fiction writing. He also wrote mysteries, westerns and adventures. Therefore, this church was created by a man who wrote mostly science fiction novels - among other types of fiction. He wrote down his own philosophy on life - about everything from one's being as a Thetan to the Eight Dynamics to the use of E-meters - and published these ideas. Needless to say, the ideas caught on - and with Tom Cruise's devotion to the religion, it's picking up popularity through its exposure in the media.

On the other hand, J.R.R. Tolkien himself was a devoted Catholic. I think that Hubbard's desire to create a religion as opposed to Tolkien's motives divides the two. Historically, it was not until 313 CE, when Licinius, coemperor to Constantine, issued what was known as the Edict of Milan, which officially outlawed religious persecution of any sort, thus ending the persecution of Christians as well. Constantine was the first Holy Roman Emperor - the first that declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. This was during the 330's, shortly before he passed away. Before this time, you do get religious relics and artwork devoted to Christianity, but many these were hidden in the form of what would be thought by Romans to be pagan images. Take, for example, the Mosaic of Jesus in his sun chariot - most of the people who would have executed the Christians for their beliefs would have interpreted this image as one of Roman devotion - one portraying the sun god. You do, however, get some images, such as the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, which depict Christian imagery. Actually, these are the best examples of typological exegesis that you can get as well.

In his original creation of The Silmarillion, Tolkien said, as cited in his letter to Milton Waldman in 1951 (it's in the forward of my copy of The Sil):

I am not 'learned' in the matters of myth and fairy-story, however, for in such things (as far as known to me) I have always been seeking material, things of a certain tone and air, and not simple knowledge. Also - and here I hope I shall not sound absurd - I was from early days grieved by the poverty of my own beloved country: it had no stories of its own (bound up with its tongue and soil), not of the quality that I sought, and found (as an ingredient) in legends of other lands. There was Greek, and Celtic, and Romance, Germanic, Scandinavian, and Finnish (which greatly affected me); but nothing English, save impoverished chap-book stuff. Of course there was and is all the Arthurian world, but powerful as it is, it is imperfectly naturalized, associated with the soil of Britain, but not with English; and does not replace what I felt to be missing. For one thing its 'faerie' is too lavish, and fantastical, incoherent and repetitive. For another and more important thing: it is involved in, and explicitly contains the Christian religion.

For religion which I will not elaborate, that seems to me fatal. Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form or the primary 'real' world.

...

But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the largh and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story - the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths - which I could dedicate simply to: England; to my country.

...

Of course, such an overweening purpose did not develop all at once. The mere stories were the thing. They arose in my mind as 'given' things, and as they came, separately, so too the links grew. An absorbing, though continually interrupted labour (...): yet always I had the sense of recording what was already 'there', somewhere: not of 'inventing'.

And, if you want to read the rest - a lot of which relates to this very question of religion - an invention of a mythology to make up for where Tolkien feeled that one was lacking - I suggest you find the letter. Rereading it to find the quotes I used, I realized that the whole letter basically addresses the "why" behind the creation of The Silmarillion - in essence what one would most likely consider to be Tolkien's Bible, if one were of such a mind.

While I deeply believe Tolkien did not intend for his creation to effect a religious movement, he did seem to have a desire to create a mythology of sorts - a creation that tied to his own land, bringing in the essential elements of what little mythology they did have and calling on the complex mythology of the Finnish, Norse and others to inspire him. As he said, he felt almost as though he was recording what already existed, rather than making it up out of nowhere. I think this calls on the "magic" that many feels resides in Earth - that there is a heroic faerie/fantasy story tied to every land, whether true or not. It calls upon the human desire to believe in the supernatural - to believe that there are things beyond the scientific and even the dogmatic religious. So, believe what you will - it seems to be in human nature to believe in a "greater" - to want to believe in Elves, Giants, Dragons, in eras of mystery and magic, especially in such an industrial, scientific world. I don't believe I am myself in a position to dictate what is "true" and what is not, having lived only eighteen years (but then again, is anyone really in a position to say for sure what is real?), but everyone has a right to carry beliefs that can sustain them in the world.