2019 Honouring the Valar, Finding the Elf Within: The Curious History of Tolkien Spirituality and the Religious Affordance of Tolkien’s Literary Mythology (original) (raw)

The gift of Iluvatar: Tolkien's theological vision

2004

This article explores some of the principal theological themes underlying Tolkien’s fiction through reference to Tolkien’s own comments and observations expressed in his letters, lectures and other creative works. It is my contention in this article that Tolkien’s work is explicitly theological and makes an important contribution to contemporary Christian theological discussion, especially with regards to the vocation of Christians and their role in the salvation of the world.

2014 The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu: A Study of Fiction‐based Religion (full text)

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the organisation and development of the spiritual Tolkien milieu, a largely online-situated network of individuals and groups that draw on J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary mythology for spiritual inspiration. It is the first academic treatment of Tolkien spirituality and one of the first mono¬graphs on fiction-based religion, a type of religion that uses fiction as authori¬ta¬tive texts. Adopting a semiotic approach to religion, the book raises questions about the persuasive power of narrative, about religious blending, and about rationalisation of beliefs. How can some readers come to believe that supernatural agents from fictional narratives are real? How do fiction-based religions emerge when their authoritative texts lack important religious building-blocks, such as descriptions of rituals? And how do adherents of fiction-based religions legitimise their beliefs, given the fact that their religion is based on fiction? In short, with Tolkien religion as a case the dissertation aims to uncover the semio¬tic structures and processes involved in the construction and maintenance of fiction-based religion, and the social structures that sup¬port the plausibility of such religion.

Culture, Communion and Recovery: Tolkienian Fairy-Story and Inter-Religious Exchange

Recent scholarship on Tolkien has been especially attentive not only to the importance of religion in his personal life, but also to the wider theological implications which may be drawn from his works. In this study, Alana Vincent argues that the cultural influence of "The Lord of the Rings" provides an excellent model for understanding the mutually transformative relationship between religion and culture, and in so doing also provides an important and unexplored pathway for inter-religious exchange.

The Gift of Ilùvater: Tolkien’s Theological Vision

Australian Ejournal of Theology, 2004

This article explores some of the principal theological themes underlying Tolkien’s fiction through reference to Tolkien’s own comments and observations expressed in his letters, lectures and other creative works. It is my contention in this article that Tolkien’s work is explicitly theological and makes an important contribution to contemporary Christian theological discussion, especially with regards to the vocation of Christians and their role in the salvation of the world

‘Tolkien through the Eyes of a Medievalist.’ (updated version 2021)

‘Tolkien through the Eyes of a Medievalist.’ Originally published in Thomas Honegger (ed.). 2005. Reconsidering Tolkien. Cormarë Series 8. Zurich and Berne: Walking Tree Publishers, 45-66. This updated version (May 2021) is the basis for the translation into Spanish for the volume 'JRR Tolkien y la Tierra Media' (Jonathan Alwars Publicaciones, 2021) .

A Further Step into the Theological Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien

2024

Guglielmo Spirito When he saw them he knew that he had always known them and realized what part each one of them had played at many an hour in his life when he had supposed himself alone, so that now he could say to them, one by one, not "Who are you?" but "So it was you all the time" … C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape letters

Review of Tolkien Studies 11 (2014)

Review of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review. Volume XI (2014). 342 pages. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press. Edited by Michael D.C. Drout, Verlyn Flieger and David Bratman. (forthcoming in Hither Shore 12)