Tolkien heartily disliked allegory, and he strenuously objected whenever readers tried to вЂњtranslateвЂќ his Middle Earth tales into either theological or historical parables. Others have erred in the opposite direction, finding allegory in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, so that Gandalf = Christ, Sauron = Satan, etc. Some critics assume that Tolkien compartmentalized his faith and his fiction, that his personal convictions are largely irrelevant to his fantasy tales. As a fantasy writer, Tolkien could affirm his chosen genre as one of the purest of all fictional modes, because it called for the creation not only of characters and incidents, but also of worlds for them to exist in.Д«ut this same doctrine has created some confusion among TolkienвЂ™s readers and interpreters. As a Christian, Tolkien could view sub-creation as a form of worship, a way for creatures to express the divine image in them by becoming creators. The doctrine of sub-creation was especially congenial to Tolkien, both as a Christian and as a fantasy writer. Tolkien believed that the highest calling of the Christian artist was to be a вЂњsub-creator,вЂќ to create plausible and self-consistent Secondary Worlds, rather than composing tales set in the Primary World in which we live. By contrast, Tolkien believed that the connection should be implicit, explaining that he deliberately вЂњkept allusions to the highest matters down to mere hintsвЂќ ( Letters 201). But I was equally surprised to learn that Tolkien was a devout Catholic, as no one in Middle Earth seeks help or guidance from a Higher Being, nor are there any obvious references to prayer, worship, or faith.ДЇor Lewis, the connection between his faith and his fantasy was explicit, and he actually joked about вЂњsmuggling theologyвЂќ into his stories. I was surprised when other readers told me they read all seven Narnia books without noticing any biblical parallels.

Religion in middle earth