Tolkien and Christianity: A Meditation on The Lord of the Rings

What Was Tolkien Up To?

The movie installments of The Lord of the Rings should generate interest in the question of what J. R. R. Tolkien thought he was up to with that remarkable tale.

Tolkien was very much a Christian and very much a Catholic, and what he was up to was the reenchantment of the world. One of the chief virtues of fantasy is its power to make us see the ordinary things of the world, and the world itself, as new, strange, and wonderful.

Asked the really big question, What is the meaning of life?, Tolkien wrote this: “The chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks. To do as we say in the Gloria in Excelsis. . . . We praise you, we call you holy, we worship you, we proclaim your glory, we thank you for the greatness of your splendor. And in moments of exaltation we may call on all created things to join in our chorus, speaking on their behalf . . . all mountains and hills, all orchards and forests, all things that creep and birds on the wing.”

Tolkien as subcreator fulfilled his purpose as best he could. His vocation was to redeem the time through a Christ–inspired and God–centered mythology, to counter the dryness and devastation of the modern world with enchantment, to provide a glimpse of the True Joy, and to speak for all things: Valar, Maiar, incarnate angels, Elves, Dwarves, ents, hobbits . . . even modern men and women. His achievement helps one believe, indeed, that there is always hope.