Christianity is a central theme in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional works about Middle-earth, but the specifics are always kept hidden. This allows for the books' meaning to be personally interpreted by the reader, instead of the author detailing a strict, set meaning.
J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Catholic from boyhood, and he described The Lord of the Rings in particular as a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision". While he insisted it was not an allegory, it contains numerous themes from Christian theology. These include the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace. A central theme is death and immortality, with light as a symbol of divine creation, but Tolkien's attitudes as to mercy and pity, resurrection, the Eucharist, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing can also be detected. Divine providence appears indirectly as the will of the Valar, godlike immortals, expressed subtly enough to avoid compromising people's free will. The Silmarillion embodies a detailed narrative of the splintering of the original created light, and of the fall of man in the shape of several incidents including the Akallabêth (The Downfall of Númenor).
There is no single Christ-figure comparable to C. S. Lewis's Aslan in his Narnia books, but the characters of Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn exemplify the threefold office, the prophetic, priestly, and kingly aspects of Christ, respectively.
Context
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the generic name for the setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy, and more specifically the central continent of his world of Arda. Works set there include his 1937 children's book The Hobbit, his 1954–55 novel The Lord of the Rings, and his 1977 work The Silmarillion. These works are set in an imagined time in the distant pagan past of the Earth's history, long before Christianity.
Tolkien's Catholicism
Tolkien was a devout Catholic. He described The Lord of the Rings as rich in Christian symbolism, as he explained in a letter to his close friend and Jesuit priest, Robert Murray:
The Tolkien scholar Patrick Curry writes that Tolkien's statement however elides the paganism that pervades the work; it may be fundamentally Christian, but on other levels it is another matter, with its pagan polytheism and animism, and many other features. In other words, Middle-earth is both Christian and pagan. The Tolkien scholar Paul H. Kocher comments that "having made the times pre-Christian, [Tolkien] has freed himself from the need to deal with them in a Christian context, which would be awkward if applied to elves, ents, dwarves, and the rest."
Many theological themes underlie the narrative, including the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace, as seen with Frodo's pity toward Gollum. The work includes the themes of death and immortality, mercy and pity, resurrection, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing. Tolkien mentions the Lord's Prayer, especially the line "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" in connection with Frodo's struggles against the power of the One Ring. Tolkien said "Of course God is in The Lord of the Rings. The period was pre-Christian, but it was a monotheistic world", and when questioned who was the One God of Middle-earth, Tolkien replied "The one, of course! The book is about the world that God created – the actual world of this planet."
The Bible and traditional Christian narrative also influenced The Silmarillion. The conflict between Melkor and Eru Ilúvatar parallels that between Satan and God. Further, The Silmarillion tells of the creation and fall of the Elves, as Genesis tells of the creation and fall of Man. As with all of Tolkien's works, The Silmarillion allows room for later Christian history, and one version of Tolkien's drafts even has Finrod, a character in The Silmarillion, speculating on the necessity of Eru Ilúvatar's eventual Incarnation to save Mankind. Morgoth's Ring, "Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth", pp. 322, 335 A specifically Christian influence is the notion of the fall of man, which influenced the Ainulindalë, the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, and the fall of Númenor.
Role
Commentators including some Christians have taken a wide range of positions on the role of Christianity in Tolkien's fiction, especially in The Lord of the Rings. They note that it contains representations of Christ and angels in characters such as the wizards, the resurrection, the motifs of light, hope, and redemptive suffering, the apparent invisibility of Christianity in the novel, and not least the nature of evil, an ancient debate in Christian philosophy, that has led to lengthy scholarly argument about Tolkien's position in the book. Commentators disagree in particular on whether The Lord of the Rings is a Christian work, despite Tolkien's statement that it is.
Not specifically Christian
Catherine Madsen writes that she found herself drawn to faith by the novel, "yet not particularly to the Christian faith". She notes that Tolkien wrote that "Myth and fairy-story, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit[ly]". She states that Tolkien clearly "did not intend his work to argue or illustrate or promulgate Christianity". In her view, Tolkien uses "Christian magic", not doctrine; she notes that Tolkien wrote that Middle-earth was "a monotheistic world of 'natural theology'". The "natural religion" of the book is, she argues, based on matters such as the Elves and their longing for the sea, creating a "religious feeling ... curiously compatible with a secular cosmology". A world of religion without revelation, she writes, is necessarily ambiguous, and any triumph over evil also diminishes the good, so the world inevitably fades. Hence, what The Lord of the Rings offers is not a supernatural hope, but what Tolkien called "recovery", the reawakening of the senses, an unmediated attention to the present, as when Sam looks up into the night sky in Mordor, and is struck by the beauty of a star. To Madsen, this is "the most compelling thing about the book, and also the least Christian ... available to anyone of any persuasion, and not contingent upon belief."
Clearly purposive
The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that Tolkien stated in the foreword to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings that
Despite this, writes Shippey, Tolkien certainly did sometimes write allegories, giving the example of Leaf by Niggle, and there is certainly meant to be some relationship between his fiction and fact. He notes, too, that Tolkien deliberately "approach[ed] to the edge of Christian reference" by placing the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron on 25 March, the traditional Anglo-Saxon date of the crucifixion of Christ and of the annunciation, and of the last day of the Genesis creation. Other commentators have noted further echoes of Christian themes, including the presence of Christ figures, the resurrection, hope, and redemptive suffering.
Paul Kocher, in his book Master of Middle-earth, writes that "having made the times pre-Christian, [Tolkien] has freed himself from the need to deal with them in a Christian context, which would be awkward if applied to elves, ents, dwarves, and the rest." On the other hand, Kocher notes that Elrond ascribes purpose to events including the summoning of the Free Peoples to his council; Elrond uses the words "purpose", "called", "ordered", and "believe", implying "some living will". Similarly, he comments, Gandalf firmly tells Denethor, the despairing Steward of Gondor, that suicide is forbidden and indeed is "heathen".
Concealed Christianity
The scholar of theology and literature Ralph C. Wood, in his 2003 book The Gospel According to Tolkien, concludes "Christians are called to be hobbit-like servants of the King and his Kingdom. Frodo and Sam are first in the reign of Iluvatar because they are willing to be last and least among those who 'move the wheels of the world'". Wood notes, too, that the elves' lembas waybread is "reminiscent of the eucharistic wafer: its airy lightness gives strength in direct disproportion to its weight". Pat Pinsent, in A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien, states that "his own devout adherence to Catholicism is in fact reflected throughout his writing, to the extent that ... his faith was the driving force behind his literary endeavors".
The Episcopal priest and theologian Fleming Rutledge, in her 2004 book The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings, writes that Tolkien had constructed his book both as an exciting surface narrative, and as a deep theological narrative. She cites his statement that "I am a Christian (which can be deduced from my stories)." In her view, Tolkien very rarely allows the hints and suggestions of divine intervention to break the surface, but that the cumulative effect of his "veiled substructure" can have a powerful effect on the reader. She writes that Tolkien was providing "a rare glimpse of what human freedom within God's Divine Plan really means." She notes that while Tolkien had said The Lord of the Rings was fundamentally religious, Middle-earth appears "a curiously nonreligious world". Her view is that this was entirely deliberate, as Tolkien wanted to avoid any hint of pantheism, worship of the natural world; and while Arda is, as Tolkien wrote, "my own mother-earth", the action is set long before the Christian era; she points out that he wrote in a letter that
The scholar Verlyn Flieger writes that Tolkien's fantasy "has no explicit Christianity", unlike the medieval Arthurian legends "with their miracles, pious hermits, heavy-handed symbolism, and allegorical preachiness". Tolkien's Middle-earth, "greatly to his credit", avoided preachiness and allegory. On the subject of making Christianity explicit in fantasy, he wrote:
Flieger comments that the word "fatal" is to be taken literally: an explicit Christian message "would have killed the work", draining the life from the secondary world, and that Tolkien had indeed written in a letter:
Christ
Christ figures
+ Peter Kreeft's analysis of Christ-figures in The Lord of the Rings Christ-like attribute Gandalf Frodo Aragorn Sacrificial death Dies in Moria Symbolically dies under Morgul-knife Takes Paths of the Dead Resurrection Reborn as Gandalf the White Healed by Elrond Reappears in Gondor Saviour All three help to save Middle-earth from Sauron Threefold Messianic symbolism Prophet Priest King
The philosopher Peter Kreeft, like Tolkien a Catholic, observes that there is no one complete, concrete, visible Christ figure in The Lord of the Rings comparable to Aslan in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series. However, Kreeft and Jean Chausse have identified reflections of the figure of Jesus Christ in three protagonists of The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn. While Chausse found "facets of the personality of Jesus" in them, Kreeft wrote that "they exemplify the Old Testament threefold Messianic symbolism of prophet (Gandalf), priest (Frodo), and king (Aragorn)".
Baptism