Customer Reviews

Finding God in the Lord of the Rings

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If you were able to find this book amidst the nine billion other "Lord of the Rings" resources currently in circulation, consider yourself fortunate. "Finding God..." is not just another mindless marketing vehicle capitalizing on the Tolkien-mania currently sweeping the planet. There is real depth and substance to this work - Jim Ware has done an excellent job of exploring the faith that drove the author of the greatest book of the 20th century. It's easy to see why Tolkien's writings have stood the test of time. In addition to crafting an adventure yarn of mythic proportions, the Professor infused LOTR with virtues that never go out of style - virtues like honor, friendship, and self-sacrifice. "Finding God in the Lord of the Rings" would be an excellent place to start if you'd like to get inside the head of the man who once wrote: "...the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks. To do as we say in the Gloria in Excelsis: ...We praise you, we call you holy, we worship you, we proclaim your glory, we thank you for the greatness of your splendour." Once you know where Tolkien is coming from, the struggle between good and evil recounted in LOTR - set against the majestic backdrop of Middle Earth - takes on a whole new significance.

The authors make a valiant effort here to bring some of their own respect for Tolkien's work into the light of Scriptural themes. What I expected to be an in-depth look at "The Lord of the Rings" turns out to be more like a daily devotional, with short chapters that sum up Biblical ideas as seen in Tolkien's work. The idea is laudable; the execution only scratches the surface.

First, let's make it clear that Tolkien never intended his works to be allegorical--most fans know this already. On the other hand, he said that "In 'The Lord of the Rings' the conflict is not basically about 'freedom', though that is naturally involved. It is about God, and His sole right to divine honour." (The Letters of JRR Tolkien, pg. 243) It is impossible to read Tolkien without taking into account the context of his faith. For that reason, "Finding God in the Lord of the Rings" is a book that many have waited for. While it may satisfy the thirst of some, it will only whet the appetite for others. Overall, I recommend what the authors have done here. They write clearly and with great affection for Tolkien's writing; they speak plainly of Godly characteristics throughout this fantasy epic; they do not, however, plunge headlong into the deeper waters that I hoped to explore.

I'll enjoy this book as a coffee-table piece, one to be thumbed through for daily thoughts and encouragements. For more insight to Tolkien's meanings, I'll turn back to his own letters.

With the installment of the hit movie adaptations of "The Lord of the Rings," there have been dozens of books reprinted or published in an effort to jump in on the cash wagon. "Finding God in the Lord of the Rings" has a more unusual purpose, as it seems to be more of a reassurance that the trilogy (books or movies) is in no way objectionable and has good stuff in it.

Bruner and Ware examine various passages in "Lord of the Rings," and then examine Biblical passages and teachings that can be associated (indirectly) with the scenes from Tolkien's work. Themes such as humility, friendship, knowing that good and evil are not packaged obviously, the nature of evil, and so on are explored.

The Lord of the Rings, the foremost and best fantasy work, is not a religious book the way we think of it. However, as Tolkien was a devout Catholic, it would have been nearly impossible for him to not frame the heroes of Middle-Earth in his beliefs. Themes about temptation, redemption, punishment, good and evil, and theology are included in his created universe. However, as I am glad the authors acknowledged, Tolkien disliked parables and would never have made those beliefs blatant. Rather they were elements of morality, and actions that the heroes took.

Several of their chapters are quite nice and even thought-provoking. Some of them, such as "Shutting Out The Night" and "The Last Homely House," get a little sidetracked and start to sound slightly strained. And many of the lessons are pretty basic and bland, skimming the surface but never going into the deeper implications of morality and the impact of religion upon the book. But the writing style is breezy and the authors never get too tangled in their own words and theories. And they never become enmeshed in psychological speculation (either about Tolkien or the characters) or irrelevant New Age stuff.

There are some annoying flaws. For one thing, it is "Elven," not "Elvin." Second, the authors sidestep several faith-related points in the book, due to the fact that they directly reflected Tolkien's Roman Catholic faith. When talking about Christianity's influence on "Lord of the Rings," not talking about Tolkien being a Catholic is like talking about Legolas but neglecting to mention that he is an Elf. There are various other errors, which while they do not undermine the messages in the book, are more than a little distracting.

It's a nice but ultimately lightweight look at "Lord of the Rings" and the moral and religious overtones present in it. If you're new to "Lord of the Rings," then you might want to read this.

There's a lot of Christian, and specifically Catholic, symbolism, theology, and morality in =LotR=, but that's not quite what this book is about. For that you'd be better advised to turn to Joseph Pearce's =Tolkien: A Celebration=. Instead, it's a collection of brief essays or sermons in the form of Christian theological and ethical homilies on texts (or more accurately themes) taken from =LotR=, pretty much in chronological order. The lesson is how Tolkien's characters can serve as models for a Christian life and ethical behavior. The authors write in a traditional sermon style, and as is typical of sermons they quickly leave the text behind, moving to Biblical parallels and broader considerations which the texts inspire or exemplify.
What theis essentially Protestant books mostly leave out of their discussion of Tolkien's Catholic work is consideration of the roles of worship, iconography and symbolism, and holy awe in =LotR=. But though selective, it does not distort. Unlike someone's aborted attempt to teach the business secrets of Tolkien's characters, at least these lessons fit. For Tolkien studies, the main value is the demonstration that his characters =are= ethical, and that ethics were thus basic to the author. Sermons like these could not easily be written on many other fantasy novels.

"Finding God in the Lord of the Rings" is a book which comes highly recommended by "Focus on the Family" and at least one of the authors has connections to that organization. (I first found reference to the book on the "Focus" website.)

Why was the book written? In the opinion of this reviewer, the primary purpose was to reassure evangelical Christians that the new interest in Tolkien was "safe" from an evangelical perspective. While much is made of Tolkien's Christianity, the fact that he was an extremely devout and actively practicing Catholic was somehow left out (as this would possibly alienate some evangelicals). While I understood why the authors did this, I found it a bit disingenuous.

The content of the book itself examined specific positive attributes, demonstrated those attributes using examples from "The Lord of the Rings" and then gave Scriptural underpinnings for those attributes, followed by a one-line devotional. Very nice, in and of itself, but not particularly deep, from either a literary or spiritual perspective. There were also the odd factual error (which only a Tolkien trivia buff like myself would notice) which should have been caught by the authors or the editors.

The best part of the book was relegated to the very end, in which one of the authors gives a brief explication of Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories" and discusses the underlying theology behind the concept of the "true myth". This should have been in the introduction -- not relegated to the end.

If this book convinces strict evangelicals that Tolkien is "OK", then the book is worth it. But for me, far more could have been (and should have been) said.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote THE LORD OF THE RINGS because he wanted to write a good story. That's a huge generalization, but it's true. Now, Tolkien said time and again that THE LORD OF THE RINGS was not an allegory of any kind, but he never denied that his beliefs and values played a part in the saga's creation. Tolkien was a devout Christian (Catholic in denomination) and his faith was very real and was the essence of who he was. Therefore, though THE LORD OF THE RINGS is not an allegory, it is full of Christian images and ideals.

FINDING GOD IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS attempts to illuminate some of those Christian values found in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Unfortunately, the book never dives far enough into Tolkien's writing. There are many images, characters, and events that the author's could have examined concerning the Christian faith, but didn't. It's also really short, I read the whole book in about an hour. Therefore, it works best as a devotional for any Tolkien fan. It also works well as an introduction for any parent or other adult concerned about the goodness of THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

I am an avid Middle-earth fan and a devout Christian. I happened to purchase this book on an impulse because I as curious what angle they would take in it (considering that Tolkien clearly stated he had no "allegory" in mind). I was happy to see that first off the authors made it clear that they are not saying that Tolkien was writing an allegory of Christianinty. In stead, they make the claim that Tolkien's strong Christian beliefs are clearly seen throughout the books (LOTR, the Silmarillion, etc.). With that point, I must strongly agree. As a Christian, I can see countless areas where his beliefs find their way into his books. Honestly, how could you expect anything else? A man's beliefs are going to come out in what he does in life whether he intends them to or not. This book does a good job of pointing out examples of some of those patterns and beliefs for those who may not notice them as easily.

On the negative side, the book was a bit less than what I had hoped for. I was expecting a book set up with multiple deep essays on the various subjects, but it not quite as in-depth as I would have liked. It is a good surface analysis, but it fails to go into the depths that the more intense fan would prefer.

This is an excellent informative book for parents who are concerened about exposing their children to something that they might be worried about. It is in this regard that the book could do its greatest good because many Christians could end up tossing something out in the name of "evil" that truly can be seen as a testimony of God's glory. Honestly, it a challenge for me to withhold the tears when I am reading Tolkien's work. When I read his words, I see the infinite beauty of God's creation coming forth through the hands of a man who truly realized who his God was.

I am a young fan of the Lord of the Rings and took a great interest in both the books and the movies in the last two or three years. I found some comparisons between the characters and Christ, yet I couldn't fully grasp the Christianity in the story of Middle Earth. This book was incredibly enlightening and easy to read for a younger person like me. I didn't need scholarly and deep writing to understand the beauty of Tolkien's work. This book was thought provoking without becoming difficult to understand. I have now read it several times over, and each time I take a little piece of Tolkien with me to think about. Keep in mind that it deals with the story in the books, not the movies, and only touches on Christian values. The writers do not pair any certain character as Christ, but rather show how they all have Christ-like quality and that is why they triumph. If you are looking for something that is deep, this isn't for you. But if you just want to scratch the surface, it's a well written, easy to understand book, and a must have for Tolkien fans.

This short book uses the themes and stories of Tolkien's Trilogy to draw similarities to various themes and stories from the Bible, with each chapter ending with a simple little reflection. It's actually more of a devotional work than scholarly work. People who are looking to learn more about Tolkien and his Christian faith should continue to look elsewhere - such as "J.R.R. Tolkien : Author of the Century" by Tom Shippey.

Each chapter starts with a retelling of an event in Tolkien's trilogy, and continues to explore the theme or lesson to be learned from that event as it is also expressed in the scriptures, then ends with simple sentence reflection. The book sheds no real insights for anyone who has read Tolkien's trilogy and the Bible.

As far as the Trilogy being secular or sacred, Tolkien was equally clear that while he was not writing an allegory, a myth may have some truth in it.

Most of us know Tolkien was a Christian, and some of us Tolkien-ites know that he didn't want allegories in his book...he wanted them to be more subtle. But he just couldn't help it, and some good stuff got put in there anyway!

Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware's book attempts to highlight some of the positive attributes of Tolkien's Rings trilogy, but sadly fall short, in my opinion. There's discussion of happiness, contentedness, loyalty, all that stuff. But the book ends there, having discussed only these "nice" qualities.

In my opinion, God can be found in much deeper ways in LotR than just the positive human goodness. One of the analogies that I've heard brought out of the books is the fact that Frodo, Gandalf and Aragorn constitute the Priest, Prophet and King, the three offices of Christ. (Frodo bears the Sin [Ring] away from the others, Gandalf can obviously be thought of as a prophet, and Aragorn as the King)

There are many other analogies that one can find, if one examines closely, the works of Tolkien, and this book only scratches the surface. I sure hope someone else writes a more in-depth look at the books so everybody doesn't lump The Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia in with Harry Potter and stuff like that...there is a difference!