“The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work,” J.R.R. Tolkien himself admitted.
J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman 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.
The whole of Lord of the Rings is a Catholic Pilgrim's Progress, a 20th century Divine Comedy, a great meditation on the spiritual life, on the spiritual combat, on the pilgrimage that is living on earth while hoping for Heaven. That's why so many Catholics love it so much.
But it was Tolkien's deeply held Catholic faith that most profoundly shaped his work. Though he rightly insisted The Lord of the Rings is not an allegorical work, the fact is that Tolkien thought, imagined, and wrote as a Catholic, and his work bears the clear signs of his faith, as he fully intended it should.
The Hobbit is an intrinsically Catholic book in which Tolkien's narrator imposes his morally absolutist views on this world in opposition to some of Tolkien's own views.
'Fundamentally Religious'
Tolkien responded that he thought he understood exactly what Murray meant. Then he made his now-famous, often-quoted declaration: “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision” (172).
In a 2012 interview, she said she belonged to the Scottish Episcopal Church. Rowling has stated that she believes in God, but has experienced doubt, and that her struggles with faith play a part in her books. She does not believe in magic or witchcraft. Rowling married Neil Murray, a doctor, in 2001.
However, in J.R.R. Tolkien's books, he does not have one representation of Jesus but rather three: Gandalf, Aragorn, and Samwise Gamgee (perhaps representative of the Holy Trinity, the concept of 'God in three persons'). Each of these characters symbolizes a different aspect of Jesus Christ.
In a 2001 interview, the right-wing polemicist Richard Abanes claimed that Tolkien's Lord of the Rings exemplifies so-called biblical values “like integrity, honesty, bravery, courage, forgiveness.” Which, hey, fair enough. Moreover, it takes place in a secondary world, distinct from our own.
Legolas first appears during the Council of Elrond, where he is sent as a messenger by his father, Thranduil, to give the council the news of Gollum's escape with the Elves of Mirkwood. He is then selected by Elrond to represent the Elves in the Company that sets out with Frodo on his quest to destroy the Ring.
“The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work,” J.R.R. Tolkien himself admitted.
“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. . . . There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death.”
This article from the 1911 Catholic Encyclopaedia offers a decent summary dating from Tolkien's own lifetime. 'Rehabilitation' would better describe Purgatory, which he would also have believed in (and which is described pretty obviously in "Leaf by Niggle").
Death and immortality. Tolkien stated in his Letters that the core theme of The Lord of the Rings is death and the human desire to escape it: But I should say, if asked, the tale is not really about Power and Dominion: that only sets the wheels going; it is about Death and the desire for deathlessness.
First of all, we can see that Tolkien has modelled his story on the basic plot of the Bible. The Lord of the Rings starts with an unspoiled paradise (the Shire / Garden of Eden), which is rudely disturbed by evil (Sauron / Satanic snake). Then there is a moral quest, which brings about moral and spiritual maturation.
In early editions, the "Prologue" to The Lord of the Rings contained the sentence "Outside the Farthings were the East and West Marches: the Buckland and the Westmarch added to the Shire in S.R. 1462." That had two inconsistencies with other parts of the text.
Frodo, as the Ring-Bearer, emerges as a Christ figure, the one who bears the Cross, and with it the sins and the hopes of humanity. He emerges also as an Everyman figure, in the tradition of the mediaeval Mystery Plays, who takes up his own cross in emulation of Christ.
While a number of Christian elements can be found in The Hobbit, three of the most important are its Christian sense of purpose, its Christian sense of Providence, and its Christian sense of morality.
God is the most powerful entity in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe. The Elvish name for him is actually Eru Ilúvatar, meaning “the one, father of all.” So the question becomes: Who is the second-most powerful being? Originally, it was Melkor, “he who arises in might,” the most powerful of the Ainur (or angels).
Tolkien opens the sacrificial role to all characters, particularly the most humble ones, the hobbits. Aragorn represents the eschatology of Christ—the belief that Christ will return to establish a kingdom on earth for his faithful.
Sauron (pronounced /ˈsaʊrɒn/) is the title character and the primary antagonist, through the forging of the One Ring, of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, where he rules the land of Mordor and has the ambition of ruling the whole of Middle-earth.
Sauron. If you've read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, or seen the six movie adaptations directed by Peter Jackson, you have a pretty good idea of Sauron's place in the Third Age.
The magic in Harry Potter is fictional, so the Bible and the Catechism wouldn't condemn it.
"I had a sense that I believed in a higher power, but that I was more of a Universalist, I see that there are these unifying tenets between so many religions."
Styles believes in karma, and when Chelsea Handler asked if he believes in God, he stated that he considered himself to be "more spiritual than religious" and that it is "naïve to say nothing exists and there's nothing above us or more powerful than us."