Something resonates deep within my soul every time a crack open the majestic book by J.R.R. Tolkien. It calls to me like the mysterious music of the Ainur that still lingers on the waves of the sea. I feel that it summons me to a higher life - a life of quality, excellence and grandeur, where friends share lives using the High Speech of Tolkien, or sacred scriptures, and within every twig or fallen leaf is the pulsing power of the Holy Spirit that transfigures dross and quickens the dead.
I’m convinced that if any of us were to live in Middle Earth, we would walk around wide-eyed and flabbergasted for a couple of years, and then we would become inoculated towards its mystery and grandeur. I say that because I believe our sojourn through this world is charged with the same kind of majesty and mystique as the Fellowship’s journey and epic confrontations with the powers that threaten it.
I have found Tolkien’s story to be so moving because of its ability to open my eyes to this sort of reality in our own world. I've started from the beginning of this story I’ve read several times, but have jumped forward and read "The Passing of the Grey Company" twice already. I long to be Halbarad, who carries with him a humility and simplicity of the Ranger, but the regal presence of one who holds the weight and splendor of the Númenóreans. What kind of character walks with this grand heritage on his shoulders and yet looks at one of the Hobbits and says, "A little people but of Great worth are the Shire-folk. Little do they know of our long labour for the safe-keeping of their borders. Yet, I grudge it not." There's a lot behind that statement.
February 28, 2009
Reading Lord of the Rings Makes Me a Better Christian
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Contemplation
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Good stuff, man. I had read through the Lord of the Rings before I'd let myself see the movies a few years ago, and I enjoyed them, but in the last couple years I fell in with the Anglo-Saxonists here at UGA (not enough English Renaissance classes to take), and I've very nearly become one of those people who wears chain mail around town. (I'm still the lone Miltonist around UGA, but the Tolkien-and-Beowulf crowd has adopted me after a manner.)
ReplyDeleteTo cut off this Polonian digression, I agree that Tolkien remembers invisible things that much of modern literature has forgotten, and that's a very good reason for Christians to travel to Middeangeard when we can.
Milton! Yes, I forgot your deep passion for the guy. You also reminded me of his contribution to the High Speech that Christian's would do well to reclaim. Not that we can necessarily talk like him today, but we would do well to learn his poetic "moves" that enable him to convey realities that have been lost as well as realities that we are regaining.
ReplyDeleteI would say Narnia or Matrix shows more Christian beliefs and teachings than Lord of the rings.
ReplyDeleteWow, is your name really Benjamin Lee? If it is, nice name. If not, it looks like I'm talking to myself.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, my point was not to highlight the amount of Christian beliefs as much as it was to articulate how LOTR inspires me.
With regards to the Matrix, it seems to be way more neo-Platonic than Christian. Plus, the Matrix tells the story that the machine, which humans created, was responsible for the empowering of Neo (the "Messiah" figure). How in the world does that show a Christian belief?