Timeline for How well-known is the theology of Middle-earth, in Middle-earth?
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8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 17, 2014 at 22:56 | comment | added | Joel | And he said this in a letter to a Jesuit friend in the letters: "[LoTR] is a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision." And if that is not enough, who do you think Illuvatar is ? BUT I was wrong in one thing... I said religious beliefs had changed... which is not exactly true. It's more a philosophical conception about his whole process of writing that has changed. | |
| Dec 17, 2014 at 22:48 | comment | added | Joel | @DVK: here's an exact quote from Christopher Tolkien, in the Foreword to "The Silmarillon" supporting what I'm saying: ""...became the vehicle and depository of his profoundest reflections. In his later writing mythology and poetry sank down behind his theological and philosophical preoccupations: from which arose incompatibilities of tone." And from JRR himself... "I think that many confuse "applicability" with "allegory"; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author." The boundary is a bit blurred between the 2. | |
| Dec 5, 2014 at 5:35 | comment | added | Joel | Read the Unfinished Tales, there are many commentaries to the fact that Tolkien rewrote the story of Arda over the years because his philosophy evolved, and as years went by, it became more and more christian. As for allegories... well... user23715 sums it up pretty well. It's true that Gandalf exhibits some of the traits of a christ-like figure, but Frodo also, again like user23715 said. Anyway, in my mind, the real hero of the story is Gandalf. He's the chief organiser ;-) | |
| Oct 17, 2014 at 19:07 | comment | added | user23715 | @SSumner - Can't speak to this religiously but philosophically any number of characters can be considered "Christ-like". All that is required is to exhibit, to a marked degree, one or more personal attributes of the main character in the story of Jesus of Nazareth. | |
| Sep 24, 2014 at 1:00 | comment | added | The Fallen | And if there was allegory, if anyone was "Christlike" in Lotr, it would have to be Gandalf, not Frodo | |
| Jan 17, 2014 at 18:25 | comment | added | DVK-on-Ahch-To | " because they [religious beliefs] had changed many times through the years" - do you have proof of that? As far as Frodo and Christ, Tolkien hated allegories and clearly stated LOTR wasn't any kind of allegory. Christ included. | |
| Jan 17, 2014 at 18:07 | review | First posts | |||
| Jan 17, 2014 at 18:25 | |||||
| Jan 17, 2014 at 17:51 | history | answered | Joel | CC BY-SA 3.0 |