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LOTR christian or not?

Deamiter

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My Christian university actually has a class on the "theology of Tolkien" though unfortunately I won't be able to take the class as it's quite popular. As taught by the professor, it teaches that Tolkien was certainly a strong Christian which is obvious in his works, but not explicit in his works.

The class doesn't read anything especially strong into the works, but instead teaches theology using allegory from the books and the MANY similarities between the world of Middle Earth and Christianity.

For example, I would certainly be the last to label the Harry Potter books as satanic, but the world and the way magic works in that series is MUCH less compatible with the Bible's description of the way things work than Tolkien's stuff. In the Potter series, magical powers are like computer programs -- put in the right commands and the right result comes out. In Tolkien, characters are bound to give their lives to either good or evil, and though they can choose for either side at any time, (like how we all sometimes choose sin even though we're Christian) and everything has consequences... Anyway, I'll stop rambling about Tolkien, but I DO find his works to be very 'Christian,' in content, though obviously not explicitly.
 
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Specter

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Deamiter said:
My Christian university actually has a class on the "theology of Tolkien" though unfortunately I won't be able to take the class as it's quite popular. As taught by the professor, it teaches that Tolkien was certainly a strong Christian which is obvious in his works, but not explicit in his works.

The class doesn't read anything especially strong into the works, but instead teaches theology using allegory from the books and the MANY similarities between the world of Middle Earth and Christianity.

For example, I would certainly be the last to label the Harry Potter books as satanic, but the world and the way magic works in that series is MUCH less compatible with the Bible's description of the way things work than Tolkien's stuff. In the Potter series, magical powers are like computer programs -- put in the right commands and the right result comes out. In Tolkien, characters are bound to give their lives to either good or evil, and though they can choose for either side at any time, (like how we all sometimes choose sin even though we're Christian) and everything has consequences... Anyway, I'll stop rambling about Tolkien, but I DO find his works to be very 'Christian,' in content, though obviously not explicitly.
ahem. Any any all "magic" found in Tolkien isn't acquired by spells and what not. They're all abilities attributed by the creator. i.e. Gandalf is not human. He uses magic. It isn't anything EXTRA, but a part of him. It's like our ability to talk or to taste or to see. Same thing for him.
 
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