The Catholic Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings | Prof. Paul Gondreau

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This lecture was given on April 5th, 2024, at University of South Carolina.

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About the Speaker:

Paul Gondreau is professor of theology at Providence College, where he has taught for 26 years. He received his doctorate in theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, doing his dissertation on Christ's full humanity (Christ's human passions/emotions) under the renowned Thomist scholar Jean-Pierre Torrell. He specializes in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and has published widely in the areas of Christology (focusing on Christ’s full humanity and his maleness), Christian anthropology, the moral meaning and purpose of human sexuality and sexual difference, the biblical vision of Aquinas' theology, the theology of disability, the sacrament of the Eucharist and the priesthood, and the Catholic vision of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.8	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:13.1	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.1	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at to mystic institute.org.
0:25.1	The Lord of the Rings is, of course, a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.
0:32.0	So writes J.R. Tolkien in a letter to a Jesuit priest,
0:36.1	a fact that is becoming increasingly well known,
0:39.4	that Tolkien was in fact himself a devout Catholic. In another letter, he adds that he
0:45.3	intended the Lord of the Rings to be consonant with Christian thought and belief, and that the Lord
0:50.9	of the Rings is about God and his sole right to divine honor. In fact, I teach a course on Tolkien, and the theme of the Rings is about God and his sole right to divine honor.
0:55.7	In fact, I teach a course on Tolkien, and the theme of the course is what he meant when he says,
1:00.7	Lord of the Rings is a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.
1:03.7	That's sort of the goal of the chorus is to flesh out what he means by that.
1:08.7	Because what could he have meant by these remarks, especially since the term God, nor certainly Catholic, nowhere appear in the story. These remarks have befuddled many scholars over the years. What's specifically Catholic about the Lord of the Rings?
1:24.8	Well, it's not at all obvious, and much of it, in fact, nearly all of it is
1:30.2	beneath the surface, the entire Catholic worldview, I would argue, is present in the Lord of the Rings.
1:36.9	All the essential elements of Catholic doctrine are found there. God and the Trinity are there.
1:42.3	Christ is there. The Eucharist and all the sacraments are there. The church is there. The Virgin Mary and the Trinity are there, Christ is there, the Eucharist and all the sacraments are there,
1:46.0	the Church is there, the Virgin Mary and the saints are there,
1:50.0	the Catholic view of the human person is there, along with all essential elements of Catholic moral doctrine,
1:56.0	sin, grace, divine providence, natural law, virtue, both natural and theological.
2:07.5	The Catholic view of the last things, the Eschaton is there, and so much of the Bible is there.
	...

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