The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-Earth

181 Pages·2003·4.57 MB·English

by  Ralph Wood

The Gospel According
to Tolkien
Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth
Ralph C. Wood
Westminster John Knox Press
LOUISVILLE • LONDON
© 2003 by Ralph C. Wood
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox
Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396.
Scripture quotations from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copy
right © 1946, 1952, 1971, and 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by
permission.
See acknowledgments, pp. 168-69, for additional permission information.
Book design by Sharon Adams
Cover design by Jennifer K. Cox
First edition
Published by Westminster John Knox Press
Louisville, Kentucky
This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Stan
dards Institute Z39.48 standard. ©
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12—10 98765432 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wood, Ralph C.
The gospel according to Tolkien : visions of the kingdom in middle-
earth / Ralph C. Wood.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-664-22610-8 (alk. paper)
1. Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973. Lord of the rings.
2. Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973—Religion. 3. Chris
tianity and literature—England—History—20th century. 4. Christian fiction,
English—History and criticism. 5. Fantasy fiction, English—History and
criticism. 6. Christian ethics in literature. 7. Middle Earth (Imaginary place)
I. Title.
PR6039.O32L63 2003
823'.912—dc21
2003047901
For John Sykes
my student, friend, and companion in the Quest

Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
1 The Great Symphony of the Creation 11
2 The Calamity of Evil: The Marring of the Divine Harmony 48
3 The Counter-Action to Evil: Tolkien's Vision of the Moral Life 75
4 The Lasting Corrective: Tolkien's Vision of the Redeemed Life 117
5 Consummation: When Middle-earth Shall Be Unmarred 156
Bibliography 166
Acknowledgments 168
vn

Preface
is theological meditation on The Lord of the Rings does not
enter into the many debates among scholars about the various and
often conflicting interpretations of Tolkien. I seek nothing more or
less than to make the Christian dimension of this great book acces
sible to the ordinary interested reader of Tolkien. Yet the absence
of footnotes hardly means that the author owes no debts. Quite to
the contrary, I am immensely grateful to the many Tolkien schol
ars whose work I have silently drawn from. My treatment of the
classical virtues will reveal my obvious reliance on Josef Pieper's
classic little treatise, The Four Cardinal Virtues, even as my esti
mate of the theological virtues, especially charity understood as
forgiveness, will disclose my continuing homage to the work of
Karl Barth. Paul J. Wadell's Friendship and the Moral Life has also
been indispensable for my thinking about the place of philia in the
life of the Fellowship.
The parenthetical citations refer to the standard cloth-bound
editions of major works by and about Tolkien, with the following
abbreviations: The Hobbit (H), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (L),
The Silmarillion (S), "The Monsters and the Critics" and Other
Essays (MC), Morgoth's Ring (MR), The Peoples of Middle-earth
(PM), Smith of Wootton Major (SWM), and Humphrey Carpen
ter's Tolkien: A Biography (T). The Lord of the Rings itself will be
paginated according to the three separate volumes—1: The Fel
lowship of the Ring, 2: The Two Towers, and 3: The Return of the
King. All quotations from the Bible are taken from the Revised
Standard Version, since it retains the thee-you distinction that was
important to Tolkien. I have employed, again in faithfulness to
IX
x Preface
Tolkien's undeviating practice, his use of "man" and "men" to refer
to our common humanity. I have also followed his practice of lib
erally capitalizing many nouns that are often put in the lower case.
This is not only a way of honoring the deeply Germanic bent of his
work but also of acknowledging his more important concern—not
to flatten everything into a bland egalitarian sameness, but rather to
exalt matters that truly deserve the upper case.
Clandestine readers of The Lord of the Rings behind the Iron
Curtain, where it was strictly forbidden, were called Tolkienisti. I
owe immeasurable gratitude to my many friends who are fellow
Tolkienisti: Mike Beaty, Kyle Childress, Bill Crow, Barry Harvey,
Russ Hightower, Christopher Mitchell, Scott Moore, Byron New
berry, Mark Noll, Robin Reid, David and Jeanie Ryden, Adam
Schwartz, Gray Smith, Timothy Vaverek, and Robb Wilson. I want
also to commend several youngsters who, already as passionate
about The Lord of the Rings as their parents, represent the new
generation of Tolkien readers and future scholars: Joshua and
Gideon, the sons of Katherine and David Jeffrey; Kristen, Rob,
and Brandon, the children of Cheryl and Richard Myrick; Timo
thy and Andrew, the sons of Wanda and Gray Smith; Nathaniel and
Andrew, the sons of Jennifer and Christopher Eberlein; Brittany,
Gerad, James, and Diana, the children of Michelle and Glenn
Gentry. I owe an especially large debt to my graduate assistant,
Don Shipley, to my student Paula Fluhrer, and to my dear wife,
Suzanne. They have read the manuscript and checked all the quo
tations with painstaking and mind-numbing literalism. Five of my
Baylor students and colleagues—Ben Johnson, Helen Lasseter,
Mark Long, Elisabeth Wolfe, and Randy Woodruff—have all read
my manuscript-in-progress with immense care. Not only have they
saved me from many factual errors; they have also corrected many
misinterpretations, often supplying accurate ones in their stead. I
have shamelessly raided their ideas and insights.
My thanksgiving would not be complete without offering grati
tude to the many audiences, both academic and ecclesial, who
have listened to my lectures and engaged me in lively discussion
of Tolkien's work. Here I can do no more than list the churches and
schools that have received me with extraordinary kindness: Mount
Preface xi
Tabor United Methodist in Winston-Salem, Park Cities Presbyter
ian in Dallas, Saint Charles Avenue Baptist in New Orleans, Saint
Alban's Episcopal in Waco, Calvin College, the Cambridge School
of Dallas, Cleveland State University, the Duke University Divin
ity School, Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge, Louisiana
State University-Shreveport, the University of Notre Dame, Ober-
lin College, the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State Univer
sity, Southern Methodist University, Texas A&M University-
College Station, Texas A&M University-Commerce, and the
Texas Military Institute. There is not space to list the scores of stu
dents from whom I learned much about Tolkien during the years
1986-97, when they took my course called "Faith and Imagina
tion" at Wake Forest University, nor from the classes in the Oxford
Inklings that I have taught at Samford University, at Regent Col
lege in Vancouver, and also at my beloved Baylor during the inter
vening years. These students and many other Tolkienian friends
have joined me in forming a latter-day Company of the Little
People whose friendship is golden beyond all glitter.
This book is dedicated to my very first student, John D. Sykes
Jr. He entered Wake Forest as a freshman from a Baptist parson
age in Norfolk at the same time I entered the university as a teacher
fresh from graduate study at the University of Chicago—in 1971.
If possible, my gourd was even greener than his. For more than
three decades, I have remained a grateful learner from this former
student. Like a true hobbit, John has graciously let me receive
credit for insights and ideas that truly belong to him. Never was
this reversal more fully demonstrated than when Sykes returned to
teach in my stead during my National Endowment for the Human
ities Fellowship year, 1984-85. There at Wake Forest he began
offering a new and instantly popular course called "Faith and Fan
tasy," which included the entire text of The Lord of the Rings. Fol
lowing his example, I soon began to teach the same course. To my
surprise and delight, I came to discern the enduring greatness of
Tolkien's book. And in place of a dwindling student audience, I
found one that continues to expand even today. Hence my huge
double debt to John Sykes—not only for turning my teaching
career around, but also for the beginnings of this little book.