Christianity and Tolkien

[LadyBrooke]

Originally Posted by Draugohtar

It's not a question of 'new' Catholicism, the fundamental teachings etc are entirely unchanged. Vatican 2 was more about 'opening' up the Church to be more accessible, however, what was bad before, remained bad after and vice versa.

I'm not going to debate that, however, I'd like to say that still a matter of opinion. What is a fundamental teaching for some people would be a minor issue to other people - I can say that I know a lot of Catholics that have split from the church following Vatican 2. There are people who think the change from Latin to vernacular languages undermined the entire church. The doctrine hasn't changed, but the Church's view on things not specifically in the doctrine has changed. Also, weren't the dietary laws for certain things changed? As well as a completely revised and new Code of Canon Law and the habits of nuns...it is opinion, not a fact, that this is not a new type of Catholicism.

I'm not saying Tolkien would feel the same way, I am just pointing out that depending on the way people feel about it, the Roman Catholic Church can be viewed as having gone significant changes since he was alive. This is something that I personally would always take into account when trying to determine a degree of Catholic belief into his books, that the beliefs he had are not necessary the same ones as the current Church or any given contemporary Roman Catholic, as well as the difference in time periods and how any given religion would be viewed.

No one has to agree with the above, but there are people that feel that way. And broad sweeping generalizations rarely do much good. *shrug*

Personally, I'd say that Tolkien's good characters have moral codes and beliefs that Tolkien felt were important, which were deeply inspired his own religious beliefs and therefore his Catholicism. However, the characters themselves are not bound to follow the entire teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, nor do I believe that Tolkien directly wrote any character that was supposed to be a Christ figure, the Virgin Mary, or any other important religious figure. Of course, later in life, Tolkien could have seen parallels between them and characters, as can we. But I doubt it was an intentional parallel, as seen by the many different characters that are proposed as the Christ figure.

...part of that might be that direct religious parallels make me uncomfortable. I haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia since I realized all the parallels.

Originally Posted by jallanite

Quite naturally Tolkien based the morality in the book on his own feelings for what was moral which is mostly shared, at least in word if not in deed, by non-Roman Catholics and non-Christians. He avoided dealing with controversial subjects. For example, capital punishment comes up only in a personal opinion by Gandalf that Bilbo was right to spare Gollum when he could have killed him.

Though we see an example of capital punishment in The Silmarillion, when Turgon orders Eol killed. It's curious because Turgon seems to be portrayed as one of the more moral characters. Of course, there are massive differences between Gollum and Eol, and the Silm and LotR.