How Tolkien influenced the conversion to Christianity of his friend C.S. Lewis

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One of the most emblematic museums in the city of Rome, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, is currently hosting an exhibition on the life of the writer J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of “The Lord of the Rings” who played a decisive role in the conversion to Christianity of his great friend C.S Lewis.

The exhibition, titled “Tolkien: Man, Professor, Author,” which will remain open until Feb. 11, goes through the different stages of the life of the English writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, whose literary works are imbued with Catholic elements.

As noted in the exhibition, the creative activity of Tolkien, who wrote that “the only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion,” could not have developed without his involvement with the so-called “Inklings,” an informal group of writers and academics with ties to Oxford University who met during the 1930s and 1940s.

This group included some important intellectuals of the time such as Owen Barfield and Charles Williams, but the person with whom Tolkien developed a close friendship was C. S. Lewis, the author of “The Chronicles of Narnia” who held a deep-seated rejection of Christianity during his youth.

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