Posted: July 04, 2000 at 19:59:32: by Gaffer
: Tolkein was a devout Catholic, but in all of LotR there is no evidence of any kind of organised religion practised by any of the numerous races. Did he deliberately decide not to complicate matters with this, or is LotR partly intended to be a very in-depth moral parable (as I believe the bible to have originally been meant to be)? I incline towards the latter view myself but would welcome any other views or insights.It depends on what kind of Catholic you are talking about -- there are all kinds. For some (and for Tolkein, I think) being Catholic is not simply a set of formulae you recite in a creed. It is a revolution in perspective; a way of seeing the world and living in it. For this kind of Catholic, who believes that the world was created and redeemed in every time and place by a loving provident God, everything they write will be filtered through this lens. So in response to Jan, for this kind of Catholic, if s/he writes a book, it is a Catholic book, as I think LOtR is. This also applies to many other 20th century Catholic authors like Waugh, Endo, O'Connor, Bernanos, Peguy, Percy, Greene, etc.
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