Christian History Home > Issue 78 > J.R.R. Tolkien: From the Editor - He Gave Us Back Myth and with it, Truth
J.R.R. Tolkien: From the Editor - He Gave Us Back Myth and with it, Truth
Chris Armstrong | posted 4/01/2003 12:00AM
By the 1960s, "miracle" had been co-opted to sell mayonnaise, "spirit" came from bottles or pep bands, and "Passion" referred only to the national obsession with sex. Into this materialistic, secularized decade came a wondrous visitor: J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (see p. 42).
This fantasy trilogy opened the world of myth and mystery to a generation disenchanted with the soulless corporate culture around them. The tale came from a man with a profoundly Christian imagination. Though many readers didn't (and don't) notice this fact, Tolkien has awakened at least some to the gospel. As one respondent to our recent Tolkien web poll put it:
"I read the Hobbit and the Trilogy many times as a young teen and into my twenties. I was not born again at that time, and in fact struggled through some awful rebellion and darkness. But the stories developed in me a deep sense of the unseen reality of forces I did not understand, and a commitment to not let evil win out. … Tolkien's beautiful models ...
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