[Damocles]

Although he loathed allegory, Tolkien wrote in a 1953 letter to Fr. Robert Murray: "The Lord of the Rings" is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."

I came to that conclusion as well, but the above statement seems to indicate otherwise.

Looks like more research is in order...

[uncbob]

Although he loathed allegory, Tolkien wrote in a 1953 letter to Fr. Robert Murray: "The Lord of the Rings" is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."

That does it

If this becomes public then the left wing reviwers will all of a sudden find a reason to pan the movie

[BibChr]

I appreciate your honesty with his statement. I see so many (inluding Ian McKellen) scoffing at any religious overtones in LOTR — in which case they are, in effect, disagreeing with the author himself!

And I say this as one myself who, though both a Christian and a multi-decade reader of LOTR, has never been overwhelmed by anything religious in LOTR. I've come to see that it must be mostly in the moral and teleological fabric of Tolkien's universe. There are, as well, a few more overt statements sprinked here and there, and more so in the Silmarillion — or in the portion I've been able to labor through!

Dan

[Taliesan]

Lots of people confuse the artistic issue of allegory/fable with the deeper issue of worldview. Especially those who look at all "religion" superfically think that Tolkein's distate for allegory meant a distate for any worldview dominating a story -- which of course would be impossible, since "story" is nearly a synonym for worldview. The artist has to decide what is important and what is not important literally in the first sentence.

Two separate issues.

It is fundamentally and consciously a Catholic work which studiously avoids allegory for artistic reasons.