Tolkien and Religion

Today, I took a wander.  And to quote J.R.R. Tolkien, "not all who wander are lost."

I wandered around to some of the spots that were important in Tolkien's life outside of academia.  I went first to the Oxford Oratory or as it was known in Tolkien's day St. Aloyisus Church.  It is a beautiful ornate sanctuary not far from the city center.  There is a holy hush about the place.  About a mile and a half farther up the road is the much less grand St. Gregory's Catholic Church where Tolkien would also attend mass.  Then it was another fair distance to Northmoor Road numbers 20 and 22, two of the houses that he and his wife Edith shared during their days in Oxford.

Tolkien's childhood was challenging.  When he was very young, his Father died in South Africa.  In the following years, his mother and brother moved quite often.  His mother then died before he became a teenager.  In a real sense the one thread that held steady in his life during all this turbulence was the Catholic Church.

During his adult life, he seems also to have moved quite a bit as well.  He had eight addresses in Oxford during his adult life (with a sojourn in Leeds early during that period).  There always seemed to be some reason to move--whether it be adding a child, change of fortune, or children leaving.  He lived in so many houses, I can't imagine that any of them felt much like home.

Tolkien in his letters confided to friends that The Lord Of The Rings is a very Christian work.  He intentionally omitted references in it to the Christian faith for two reasons.  The first was practical.  Middle Earth existed in his imagination long before the time of Christ.  The second was his disapproval of fairy tale stories that brought in too directly the cultural point the writer was trying to make.

When Tolkien wrote about humility, loyalty, honor, sacrifice and hope he never mentions their Christian basis, but he expects that his readers will be able to see his faith in the ideals of his writings.

I suspect psychologists would have a field day with Tolkien's lacking a very permanent home.  They likely would suggest he invented his magical world to substitute for the stability of place that he lacked in his life.

But, to me, Tolkien had a home that was safe and secure.  It was from this place that he was able to begin to imagine what some other home might look like.  Yes he lived in a lot of houses--but the church was his home. Not all who wander are lost!