J. R. R. Tolkien and His Fantasies

We have received many requests to publish a review of the Tolkien works. We had done a fair amount of research, but our schedule has simply not afforded our original intentions. We have answered considerable correspondence on the subject. Then we received the question shown below. We felt that the answer contained sufficient information to help most people understand the issue. So, for the benefit of those who are interested in knowing some of the facts, and because the schedule may not permit a full-fledged review for some time, we are at least posting the answer to this person’s question.

For more information on J. R. R. Tolkien/C. S. Lewis fantasy see our review on C. S. Lewis. The two are interrelated. The Lewis review will soon receive a major addendum. It seems that we were not explicit enough as to who C. S. Lewis actually was and what he believed. Numbers of people were confused by the article because they thought that he was on the order of a Christian evangelist, or at least that he had Evangelical leanings. This idea is not really true, but it is widely propagated by ecumenical organizers that erroneously promote the works of Lewis and Tolkien as “Christian” allegory. This appears to be premeditated, as both men flatly denied this allegation while they were alive. Actually, they were both nearly diametrically opposed to theology as it is understood by Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, or even most Protestants in general. We hope the additional facts provided about Lewis and this review of Tolkien will be of some help those who are trying to steer the right course for their families.

Hello,

I really enjoyed reading your book reviews. I found them very interesting and informative. I would really be interested in reading a review of the Lord of the Rings series. We have been struggling with one of our children about these books, movies, and games. My husband and I previewed the first movie in the series and we felt very uncomfortable with the content. Our son disagrees with our feelings and beliefs because some are Christian friends of ours have told him that J.R.R. Tolkien was a Christian. They have also told him that the book is similar to the Chronicles of Narnia series and that the characters and incidences in the movie are Christian symbols. My husband and I were not able to see this symbolism. We have since had to ban the books and movies until we get more information. Would you consider reviewing this series anytime soon?

Name withheld

Hello,

We have had it on our list to try to do a review of Tolkien for some time. We have had many, many requests, but we just have not had the time to sit down and plough through several of his books to pull out and organize what is wrong with what he writes. It is certainly not a task to which we, as Christians, look forward. However, most parents who want to have any real Christian discernment, such as yourselves, can tell that something is wrong by just looking at one of the book covers or movie ads. It is normal to assume that evil, demonic-looking beings inhabit stories involving occultism. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.

Sadly, most of Christendom, in this country at least, while professing Christ, has turned its interest elsewhere. They want to go to heaven, but they want much more fun than they can have by following Jesus. Many churches and preachers are willing to tell them that they can have it both ways just as in the days of Jeremiah, when he said, “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?”—Jeremiah 5:31. These things never change, as it says in Ecclesiastes that there is “nothing new under the sun.”

Though we have neither the time nor the stomach to drudge through any of Tolkien’s books at present, I can give you some information that may help you explain things to your son. Tolkien was never a Christian, and never claimed to be. He was a Catholic. I was raised Catholic. The Catholic church does not teach salvation in Jesus Christ. It teaches that salvation is by mandatory church membership, works and participation in Catholic sacraments. The church recognizes the existence of Jesus, but He is, in practice, a mere secondary issue to salvation. Some people think that to be Catholic is to be Christian. It is not. From Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary the definition of a Christian is: one who believes or professes or is assumed to believe in Jesus Christ and the truth as taught by him. The Catholic church does not do this.  The truth taught by Jesus Christ is this: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." —John 14:6. The Catholic Church, catechistically, and by papal encyclical, states categorically that there is no redemption for anyone other than through the Catholic Church. Even many Catholics do not know this, and even the church, itself, would not call itself Christian until it began its postwar ecumenical movement.

The effort to condone Tolkien’s works by claiming them to be allegorical is simply an effort to capitalize on this generation’s free-wheeling ecumenical mindset in order to get it to swallow the lie that we can bathe in occultism and still be Christian. Tolkien, himself, in his day, being a Catholic, denied any Christian allegorical connotation to these works when asked. He likely knew, as C. S. Lewis likely knew, that “Christians” in his day had not yet been sufficiently prepared to swallow such a preposterous oxymoron.

Tolkien and Lewis were practically partners. Lewis openly admitted pursuing an interest in the occult. It is undoubtedly the source of material for his book, The Screwtape Letters, in which he claims to give his readers an understanding of the mind of the devil, delving into matters that Scripture tells the Christian to avoid. Lewis and Tolkien were part of the same local guild. They met regularly—generally every week. The name of this literary guild was The Inklings. It met in a tavern called The Eagle and the Child (coincidental?), less often, it is said, during the war when there was a shortage of beer. Is there any wonder that the writings of the two are so similar? Those who have seriously studied The Inklings say that Tolkien was a considerable mentor to Lewis.

There has been a considerable amount written about The Inklings, so there is no dearth of information about these people. Their fascination with the concept of subcreation can be evidenced in the following quote. “The three ages recorded in JRRT’s Middle-earth stories and annals are pre-Christian. JRRT concludes, ‘God is the Lord, of angels, and of man—and of Elves.’ ”(1) It would be intriguing to have had Tolkien explain the significance of his capitalization of the word “Elves” here.

The next quote shows us the roots of his ideology, the basis of his works, and the tenor of his purported “Christianity.” “Because of the importance they placed on the primary meaning-function of the imagination, both JRRT and CSL were particularly preoccupied with the imaginative fruit of pre-Christian paganism, particularly what might be called enlightened paganism. Most of JRRT’s fiction is set in a pre-Christian world, as was his great model, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, according to his own interpretation of that poem. Similarly, CSL explored a pagan world in his novel, Till We Have Faces.”(2)

Though the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf was written about 1000 AD, the story was handed down through the centuries, and its roots go back to at least sixth century Scandinavia. It is a Scandinavian equivalent to Greek mythology—certainly not to Christianity. Notice the fascination of these men (and the group as a whole) with pre-Christian paganism. We know from Scripture that there was pre-Christian theism at the same time there was pre-Christian pantheism or paganism. None of the Inklings showed any interest in that direction.

This group was not only interested in pre-Christian paganism. Consider this biographical excerpt from The Inklings Handbook on Aleister Crowley, another member of this intimate society. “Born Edward Alexander Crowley, Crowley became interested in the occult while at Cambridge. He was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn until expelled for extreme practices. He was proud of his self-imposed title ‘The Great Beast’ and liked to be called ‘the wickedest man alive.’ After leaving the Order of the Golden Dawn he founded his own order and attracted great notoriety with rumours of child sacrifice and other ceremonies. Those associated with him often met strange deaths, and his wife and child died tragically. Crowley was probably the inspiration for Montague James’ story 'Casting the Runes' and for the character Simon the Clerk in All Hallows’ Eve [by Charles Williams].”(3) Is it any wonder that C. S. Lewis openly admitted his participation in the occult? How could he hide it? Look at the company that he kept.

Following are Tolkien’s views on any relation of his work to Christianity:
“In a letter to W. H. Auden (in 1965), JRRT commented on the Lord of the Rings in relation to Christian theology: ‘I don’t feel under any obligation to make my story fit with formalized Christian theology, though I actually intended it to be Consonant with Christian thought and belief.’ ”(4)

And what kind of Christianity are we talking about here? Well, it must be remembered first that Tolkien was a Catholic. Again, as noted above, the Catholic church denies the truths of Christianity. He believed in praying to statues, in buying masses and indulgences to reduce one’s time in purgatory, in the miraculous power of relics, in the saving power of wearing a scapular, that a human priest can forgive sins, that the pope is a god because he neither sins nor errs, and numerous other beliefs. These things contradict the words of Jesus Christ and the definition of Christianity. They are rooted, not in Scripture, which contains the words of Jesus.

From The Inklings Handbook—“Their important years as a literary group were from around 1933 to about 1949, especially during the war when another key member, CW [Charles Williams who wrote All Hallow’s Eve], was resident in Oxford. In these years they met in CSL’s rooms in Oxford, as well as in the Eagle and Child and other pubs. CW wrote poetry, novels, plays, literary criticism, and off-the-beaten-track theology. He powerfully influenced CSL, though JRRT was not so taken with him. JRRT played a vital role in CSL’s conversion to Christianity—the latter was for many years an atheist, then a pantheist.”(5)

The authors of The Inklings Handbook are either totally unaware of real Christianity, or they are willingly purporting this falsehood. As we said, Tolkien was never a Christian. Neither was Lewis. Lewis became a pseudo-Catholic. He joined the Anglican church, but he slowly gravitated closer and closer to Catholicism. He called himself “very Catholic.” His beliefs included purgatory and prayers for the dead. He went to a priest for regular confession. Before his death he received the sacrament of extreme unction. In short, he depended upon the Catholic church to get him to heaven. Real Christians understand that the Bible says that his faith was drastically misplaced, and that these things get no man to heaven. What does this kind of conversion mean to any discerning Christian—in regards to Lewis or Tolkien?

And just what sort of theologian was this Charles Williams? Here is a short excerpt from a synopsis of one of his works. “For All Hallows’ Eve is remarkable in that the first character whose thoughts and ideas we meet is dead. Lester Furnival, a young woman alone on Westminster Bridge, looks out over a deserted, twilit London. A plane has crashed into the Embankment, near her home. Her husband appears, demanding incredulously how she had escaped from the crash; then he fades from her sight. She realizes that she has been killed in the crash.”(6) The story continues on with dead people interacting in the affairs of live people. Are we getting the picture of a Christian group here?

Yet the world would sell us on these men being Christians. Another excerpt—“The Inklings undoubtedly represent an important part of twentieth-century cultural history, in which literature still has a high place. What is remarkable, and perhaps unique, is that they were Christians. Much of their work, especially JRRT’s explored pre-Christian paganism, the idea of what CSL called the anima naturaliter Christiana [Christian temperament given by nature - author’s translation], a kind of natural theology. Their pre-modernism has a remarkable appeal to our post-modernist culture. It seems that in their apparently foolish preoccupation with myth and fantasy, a Christian voice was in preparation that would still speak at the beginning of the twenty-first century to the wider world.”(7)

There is no doubt that their works speak to the wider world, but do they speak to the “narrow way”? The quotes from this book, The Inklings Handbook, should be continual alerts to any discerning Christian, yet the book is obviously written to non-discerning Christians, or to those who have been convinced that they are Christians. It continually expects the reader to equate pagan, pantheist, fantasy, occult and foolish ideas with Christianity. Judging from the success of Tolkien movies evidenced in the news, this feat is being accomplished admirably. Is Jesus pre-modernist or post-modernist?

And yet what is all this talk about nature and creation? These people care nothing for creation. Creation (nature) came from God. He said it was good, and it is. It is nothing like the ghoulish, occult-looking creatures that they dream up. There is nothing like this in God’s creation. That is why it is labeled subcreation as if it has some position or validity in relation to God’s nature. It is simply not so. These men and their followers preferred to entertain their own ideas of creation over those of God, and they were betting that they could convince many others to feel the same way.

In God’s creation we find angels, then man, a little lower than the angels, and then the rest of creation. In subcreation we find the landscape littered with surreal hermaphrodite gods that create a pretense of rivaling the one and only real God in power and miracles. These are often animals, which God created lower than man. Since early civilizations, it has always been a tenet of New Age occult doctrine to elevate animals to a status equal to or higher than man. In many instances, young people are not able to mentally create the proper separation between the God of the Bible and the gods of the Inklings. They already knew this. That is why we are seeing more and more young people finding their way into demonism and theosophy as advertising makes fantasy consistently more popular. Even Harry Potter is becoming common “Christian” fare. It seems utterly silly to see “Christian” some sources decry the black magic of Harry Potter, and then throw support behind the dark gray magic of Tolkien and his occult, New Age mutants, and call it Christian allegory. Whether purposefully, I know not, but surely enough, they, by their testimony, are introducing young people to the demonism of Harry Potter and worse by starting them down that road.

As an aside, the following quotes are from Tolkien about his work as allegory: (1) “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.” (2) “There is no ‘symbolism’ or conscious allegory in my story.” (3) “As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical...” (4) “There is no allegory—moral, political, or contemporary—in the work at all. It is a fairy-story written for adults.” (5) “Is the book to be considered as an allegory?”—The author replied, “No. I dislike allegory whenever I smell it.” It is not the intention of this review to delve into the infinite squabbling over the word “allegory” and its meanings and how they relate to Tolkien’s works or those of C. S. Lewis, who also denied an allegorical intent behind his Chronicles of Narnia. We simply wish to draw from this six important points for Christians.

First, God gave us many forms of enjoyment in life. We are to discern (by His standards) which are good for us. Attempting to allegorize Tolkien’s work is counterproductive to discernment. It will not do for a real Christian to try to stretch reality, and stick a label that says “Christian” on everything in which he would like to dabble (especially when the author, himself, vehemently denies the label). This can be summed up by a quote from a self-professed non-Christian on the subject. He admitted that there are parallelisms that could be construed as allegorical if one should want to do so, and closed with, “Look hard enough and you'll find anything, people.”

Second, discernment by God’s standards teaches us that the works of these men are not only not Christian allegory, but they are not fit for Christian consumption. Consider a few quotes now from God’s Word that deal with the very same topics dealt with in the works of Tolkien (and Lewis).

Deuteronomy 18:10-12—“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD:” Shall God’s people allow men like Tolkien or Lewis to bring these practices among them?

Exodus 22:18—“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Are there any good witches before God? Shall we try the terms “white witch” or “white magic” on Him?

Leviticus 20:6—“And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.” Does God want us to turn after these things for entertainment? Can we call this “Christian entertainment”? What would God call it?

Revelation 22:14-15—“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”

Paul said, “. . . and what communion hath light with darkness?”—2 Corinthians 6:14. And what communion do Christians have with all these God-forbidden practices and fantasies?

Revelation 21:8—“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” How many warnings need God give us to stay away from all this? Is this Christian allegory, or is it just an underhanded, semi-subliminal way to feed our children idolatrous lies.

Third, speaking of children, in one of his denials (above) that his work was allegory, Tolkien stated that it was strictly fantasy for adults. Even Tolkien said that this material was not fit for children—let alone Christian children. Can we spiritualize it, ignore even Tolkien’s own warnings, and then even subject children to it—with God watching? Did not Jesus say it would be better to be cast into the sea tied to a mill stone?

Fourth, where do we draw the line between allegory and blasphemy? When we decide to depict the powers of good and evil through images conjured from our own imagination, we cross an important line. Romans 1:21-23 tells us, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” How shall we view such images offered us from the imaginations of others? Would not be far better for us to simply call these images base entertainment rather than to drag God into the mess, and to say that it is a representation of Him?

Fifth, real Christian allegory will always speak to the spirit in a wonderful, godly sort of way. Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress has often brought me to tears because of Who God is, what He has done for me, and what He intends to do for me. No work that Tolkien has ever produced falls into this category. He stated explicitly that they were never intended to do so. The natural, carnal excitement of his books, and now the movie series, appeal to the carnal, fleshly side of our nature. He stated that as his goal for writing them. What does God say about this as a “Christian” diet? Romans 8:7-9 says, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Are Tolkien’s books about right and wrong? God is about right and wrong. What does the thrill of watching bloodshed (however courageously it is shed), and the butchering of others for “right” or “freedom” have to do with a humble spirit, a contrite heart, and the handing of one’s freedom over to one’s Redeemer to be used as He sees fit? Tolkien’s stories do not enrich the spirit. They embolden the flesh. This is not the work of an allegory.

Sixth, it is a serious issue to even speak of Tolkien works as allegories. Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” We had better be very careful about trying to force our own fancies into God’s mold. He will not have it, and He will judge us for it.

Going back to the Inklings, an excerpt describing poet John Wain’s description of them offers us some insight into their purpose and effect. “He admits however that he would be giving quite a false picture of CSL and his friends if he presented them as merely reactionary, as if they were putting all their energies into negatively being against things. This is far from the truth, he says. As he put it: ‘this was a circle of instigators, almost of incendiaries, meeting to urge one another on in the task of redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life.’ ”(8) They certainly redirected contemporary Christian cultural ideas of those who have not examined this issue closely. As The Inklings and others sowed their pagan fables in the unsuspecting ground of Christian culture, people had little or no inkling of the apostasy that would eventually be reaped.

Returning to Romans Chapter 1, Romans 1:22-25 says, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image [this has always been the New Age image] made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.” Can anyone deny that since the literary influence of the Inklings there has been an endless stream of Aslans, Hobbits, surreal monsters, Godzillas, Terminators, morphodite Star Wars creatures, and the like paraded before society, and that they have had a tremendous influence upon our society? We now have children all over the world, who, during their formative years, are learning to be captivated by every malformed image that comes along, as these images are spawned by an ever-increasing number of maniacal imaginations. We even have this entering and corrupting Christianity, itself, with the concoction of fictitious “Christian” cartoon characters like Bibleman (Superman’s counterpart) perverting the reality of even Christianity for children, and this before they can reach the age of reason, and have a chance to discern truth without a pre-installed bias. Does almighty God wish to be associated with, and even preempted by, cartoon characters with equal powers? How far will this go?

Who can predict the effect that this inundation of New Age images is having, and will have, on society? Only God can—and He has. This passage in Romans goes on to say, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”—Romans 1:26-27. Would anyone like to argue with God on that one? Has the rise in homosexuality during this post-Inkling period not been as stellar as the popularity of Star Wars, King Kong or Terminator? Think about it. How much time do people spend in the Word of God today? How much time do they spend enjoying such fictitious image fare rather than the truth and reality of God? If God said that homosexuality would parallel the use of these types of images, is the homosexual mania that we are witnessing today a mere coincidence? The Inklings were pagans pretending to bear a Christian standard. How long will we let them dupe us? How long will we rail against homosexuality, while we condone the influences that brought it to us as “Christian allegory”?

I hope that the information contained herein, will give your son pause for thought. He will face God and eternity some day—though we hope not, maybe sooner than he thinks. Will he follow the wide world or the narrow way? He should not think for a minute that the wide way is not packed full of “Christians.” This is why Jesus said, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”—Matthew 7:22-23. Will He speak differently to those who follow iniquity? This is surely an issue on which godly wisdom would want to stay on the safe side. Jesus said many will say “Lord, Lord” in that (judgment) day. These will not be murderers and whoremongers. They will be Bible-packing church people. People who have convinced themselves and many of us that belong to Jesus, but as He said, they do not. According to Jesus, wide is the way to destruction, and it is full of “Christians.” Narrow, and yes, sometimes unpopular, is the straight gate, but the rewards are worth it.

And then there is Psalms 101:2-4 which says, “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.” What about the people who produce Hollywood films? Do they produce them mainly for the glory of God or mainly for money? What about the writers, directors and actors? Do they live for God, or do they turn aside? We cannot go through the checkout line at any major store without seeing all the magazines that tell us that they most vigorously turn aside. So we are to hate their works? Are we not to allow them to cleave to us? How do we do that? Seeing such a film creates thousands of indelible impressions in a person’s mind—many of which we are not even aware. The Inklings knew that, thus their name. They knew that everything starts small—just an inkling. If Hollywood loves J. R. R. Tolkien’s work, does God? Should we? If we are to know no wicked person, should we get to know the actors and the people (or creatures—ugh!) that they portray? Should we offer up our minds to their influence? Is this the behavior that Jesus expects, yea requires, of His own? People are bringing every sort of ungodly printed matter, video media and music into churches, and saying that because some church people condone it, it is therefore Christian. This always reminds me of the disobedient little boy that says, “Johnny does it all the time!” The definition of what is Christian is in God’s Word, and it is not “what the other guy does.”

Lastly, has your son prayed about this issue? Has he received it from the Lord Jesus Christ that seeing such fare is something that Jesus wants him to do to God’s glory? After all, we are to do all (that would be everything that we do) to the glory of God. Knowing who creates this stuff should give us some strong clues about the answer long before we even go to prayer. And when we pray, let us not try to fool God. Some folks always receive the answers they prefer when they pray about such subjects, but then so did those found saying “Lord, Lord.”

I hope that this information has provided some understanding into why you feel uncomfortable with the symbolisms dispersed by the Inklings and their followers and supporters. They are simply occult—well lathered with excuses, but occult nonetheless. I hope it has provided your son with enough information to follow your godly guidance with a heartfelt willingness. God bless you. I have prayed for you and will pray for you.

References:
1) The Inklings Handbook, p 42
2) The Inklings Handbook, p 41
3) The Inklings Handbook, p 86
4) The Inklings Handbook, p 81
5) The Inklings Handbook, p 3
6) The Inklings Handbook, p 51
7) The Inklings Handbook, p 3

Fantasy and Homosexuality