The Lord of the Rings: A Catholic View

The Cool-Ohm Zone ^ | -- | Charles Coulombe

[B-Chan]

“It has been said that the dominant note of the traditional Catholic liturgy was intense longing. This is also true of her art, her literature, her whole life. It is a longing for things that cannot be in this world: unearthly truth, unearthly purity, unearthly justice, unearthly beauty. By all these earmarks, Lord of the Rings is indeed a Catholic work, as its author believed; but it is more. It is this age's great Catholic epic, fit to stand beside the Grail legends, Le Morte d'Arthur, and The Canterbury Tales. It is at once a great comfort to the individual Catholic, and a tribute to the enduring power and greatness of the Catholic tradition, that JRRT created this work. In an age which has seen an almost total rejection of the Faith on the part of the Civilisation she created, the loss of the Faith on the part of many lay Catholics, and apparent uncertainty among her hierarchy, Lord of the Rings assures us, both by its existence and its message, that the darkness cannot triumph forever.”

[B-Chan]

“Politically, traditional Catholic culture has been hierarchical. Feudalism itself was formed in great degree by the Faith, as is shown by the great difference between the Feudal system of European history, and its equivalents in the India of the Mughals, the Japan of the Tokugawa, and the China of the Warring States. Ideas of Chivalry and Hierarchy suggested by the Church did not merely shape European Catholic polity, but continue to determine political structures in such settings as Catholicised African tribes, ethnic Catholic Asian settlements, and Latin America. The relationships of King to Subject, of Lord to Vassal, of Comrade to Comrade-in-Arms remain, though often under other names.

In traditional Catholic societies, the King is, in a lessened sense, the Vicar of God. While not approximating the Sacral Kingship of non-Catholic peoples, the Catholic Monarchy nevertheless retains a certain sacredness. This remains the case, even when in conflict with the Church. After the calamities of the Reformation, English Civil War, Glorious, French, Industrial, and Russian Revolutions, etc., the King became more than that; he became the exiled leader of the faithful, whose return alone would bring a return to the old ways, and an end to change and unrest.

[...]

The concept of society as an organic whole, without class conflict, with a communal structure, is one that has characterised Catholic social thought since the Roman Empire. In many ways the Shire expresses perfectly the economic and political ideals of the Church, as expressed by Leo XIII in Rerum novarum, and Pius XI in Quadragesimo anno. Traditional authority (the Thain), limited except in times of crisis; popular representation (the Mayor of Michel Delving), likewise limited; subsidiarity; and above all, minimal organisation and conflict. It is the sort of society envisioned by Distributists Belloc and Chesterton in Britain, by Salazar in Portugal, by the framers of the Irish Constitution, by Dollfuss in Austria, and by Smetona in Lithuania. How ever far short or close these dwellers in the real world came to their goal, the fact remains that it is something very close to the Shire they had in mind.”

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[Xthe17th]

Karl Rove is Grima Wormtongue. I sure hope Gandalf and Aragorn arrive soon to wake up Theoden Bush.

[polemikos]

Wow! Great find.

In his Hieroglyphics: Notes on the Ecstatic in Literature, Mr. Arthur Machen declares, "Literature is the expression, through the artistic medium of words, of the dogmas of the Catholic Church, and that which is in anyway out of harmony with these dogmas is not literature," for "Catholic dogma is merely the witness, under a special symbolism of the enduring facts of human nature and the universe."

[Rose in RoseBear]

Pingpingping!

[jwfiv]

pingin' ya...)

[Huber]

PING

[Smocker]

Good article, thanks for posting.

[maestro]

Isn't this just Richard Wagner re-worked.

Das est 'Gau' ideas at it's 'roots'.

The mythical 'Volk' earth-spirits moving again?

Sure isn't the 'work' of America's Founding Fathers is it?

Just more media brainwashing...(rewriting/rejecting) 'history'?

/sarcasm

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Not merely, re-worked but negated.

See: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EA11Aa02.html

[The Duke]

Just this previous weekend the family and I saw "Return of the King". Probably the most amazing thing to me about these three stories is the number of moral lessons they offer. Two that occured to me during the movie were:

• The price of apathy is blood - the accumulation of evil in Mordor was characterized as being attributable to man's inattentiveness.

• Strength of character trumps physical strength - Only the virtuous Frodo was capable of carrying the ring, even though he was physically perhaps the weakest.

[TomSmedley]

ping

[Tax-chick]

Later

[ecurbh]

Ring Ping!!

There and Back Again: The Journeys of Flat Frodo

Anyone wishing to be added to or removed from the Ring-Ping list, please don't hesitate to let me know.

[buffyt]

I saw the Flat Frodo at Alkhin's house... Neat idea!

Ping, Alkhin!!!!

[Aquinasfan]

The fact that "LOTR" and "The Passion of Jesus Christ," probably the two greatest "Catholic" movies in history, are coming out at the same time cannot be a coincidence.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

I have had the privilege of meeting one person worthy--and theoretically capable of inheriting--a crown. It is indeed something rather amazing to encounter true Royalty (and not just weenieized petit nobility, the less we have of the better).

However, I agree with you: America has no place for a monarchy because we ELECT our King... and sometimes, (oh, abuot 2000 or so) God elects one for us in spite of ourselves.

[Tax-chick]

I guess I'm just too Protestant for this stuff, or maybe I was exposed to P.J. O'Rourke when I was too young :-).

I've read LOTR a number of times, but more recently it's been mainly for the language, and for a few characters and episodes that I particularly like. The "important, meaningful" characters and events just irritate or depress me. Maybe it's a personal flaw that I should reflect upon ...

[Campion]

I don't know much about Tom Paine's religious views, but Tom Jefferson's ... let's just say that one of his projects was "editing" his own "version" of the Gospels, by trimming out the parts he didn't like with a knife.

If you believe that Christianity is true, then you ought to take what Jefferson says about any topic with a grain or two of salt ... because he didn't.