Tolkien’s Faith: A Rumination

Early this morning, about 5 AM or so, I finished Holly Ordway’s book Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Journey. After I’d read the last fifty pages of the book proper (there were quite a few well-researched appendices to go, but the story was over), I paused a silent moment before a weighty realization hit me. I suddenly felt that I understood Tolkien at last.

I had been reading biographical material about him since at least middle school, even before the standard book on his life by Humphrey Carpenter published in 1977. There have been numerous books about various aspects of his life, from his military experiences in WWI to his deep academic knowledge about language. Before now, this had been my recorded opinion: 'Matthew Arnold wrote a sonnet on Shakespeare, that begins: "Others abide our question. Thou art free. / We ask and ask: Thou smilest and art still,/ Out-topping knowledge.' I have always felt that about J. R. R. Tolkien; I have read book after book about him and his work, but there always seem to be something elusive, uncatchable about him. It was something of a revelation to see him on film, to see him walk and talk, but in a way, it only deepened the mystery.” But now I think I know.

It seems to me as if I had been only looking at the outer edges of a puzzle; now, the center pieces have fallen into place. Tolkien’s religion had been mentioned before, of course; you could not say anything about Tolkien without knowing he was Catholic. But the fact had only been touched on briefly. Ordway skillfully brings together many strands of biography, autobiography, and history to weave a profoundly documented account of one man’s spiritual journey, a journey that impacted every aspect of his life from the inside out. Along the way, she produces, not a hagiography (the life of a saint), not an apologetic screed, but the plain facts about Catholic practices and doctrines that affected him, what made Tolkien Tolkien. One could come away from this volume, not just with a deeper insight into the man, but a working knowledge of what Catholics believe.

Holly Ordway is fast becoming one of the most profound scholars on Tolkien, Fantasy, and Imagination, and how they intersect with Christianity. This book has deeply affected me. It has strengthened and confirmed my own faith at a time when it appeared to have hit a plateau. An author that can do that with just bare facts is rare indeed.

Into the Archive: Tolkien's Faith

Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography, by Holly Ordway (2023, Word on Fire Academic, 480 pp.)

This book was supposed to be released on September 2^nd, the 50^th anniversary of J. R. R. Tolkien’s passing; a rather fitting tribute, in this case, as in Catholic tradition a saint’s day is celebrated on the date of his demise. However, it was apparently delayed for some reason, putting it closer to, if not exactly on, “Bilbo and Frodo’s Birthday”, September 22, which was originally the date on which it was to be delivered.

It could not be brought to me too quickly, though, so eager was I to get it. When I saw that it was only five deliveries away from me in the Amazon truck, I went out on the porch at 11:30 AM (temperature in the 90’s as it was) to await its arrival, though the extreme estimate of its coming was at 2 PM. But I only had time to pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart and was saying the final prayer of my Rosary when the truck pulled in.

I hurried it in and unpacked it, first from its cardboard box and then from the shrink wrap. It is a beautiful book. It is, I believe, the first fully researched account of Tolkien's religious life. Before this there have mainly been cursory mentions of his faith now and then with very little analysis of what it meant to him, or rather preachy books of theology dedicated to ‘finding God in The Lord of the Rings.’ This is, as it states, ‘A Spiritual Biography,’ dedicated to the man as well as to the effect his religion had on his creative life.

To supplement the tale, there is an extensive photo gallery of both black-and-white and color pictures, ranging from portraits of people important to his spiritual journey to the various churches that he attended throughout his life, from the Anglican cathedral in South Africa where he was baptized to the Catholic church where his funeral was held in 1973, many of them showing how the places looked when he knew them.

There is also an Appendix A: The Timeline of Tolkien’s Lifetime, and an Appendix B: Prayers and Liturgical Extracts for those unacquainted with Catholic practices, as well as a Glossary of religious terms to clarify what might be otherwise unfamiliar concepts. A plethora of Endnotes (31 pages), an extensive Bibliography, a Biblical Index marking quotations used in the text, and a General Index pay tribute to Ordway’s meticulous research and careful study.

For all that scholarship, I have never found her story-telling to be leaden or dull. Holly Ordway has quickly become one of my favorite scholars of Tolkien studies. She says that she immediately started work on Tolkien’s Faith as soon as she had finished the monumental Tolkien’s Modern Reading, which I am on record as stating that it is my favorite book in the arena since Shippey’s The Road to Middle-earth. I can hardly wait to buckle down and get tucked into Tolkien’s Faith, and then to see whatever other work she has in store.

 

New Items on the Wish List

Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (July 25, 2023)

“Doc's latest invention will either bankrupt team Venture or launch them to new heights, as Hank searches for himself, Dean searches for Hank, the Monarch searches for answers, and a mysterious woman from their pasts threatens to bring their entire world crashing down on them.” -Amazon.

“The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart is an upcoming 2023 American direct-to-video adult animated science fiction action adventure film based on the Adult Swim animated series The Venture Bros., where it will serve as the series finale. The film is directed and co-written by the series creator Jackson Publick and writer Doc Hammer, who serves as the film's executive producers and features the voices of the show's returning principal cast, James Urbaniak, Patrick Warburton, Michael Sinterniklaas, Publick and Hammer. The film centers on a nationwide manhunt for Hank Venture, which leads to a coming darkness from the past that involves the Venture Family, the Guild, and the Monarch themselves.” – Wikipedia.

 Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography (Hardcover – August 28, 2023), by Holly Ordway

Tolkien described The Lord of the Rings as “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work” and declared, “I am a Christian (which can be deduced from my stories).” Yet he insisted his writings were not allegories, and Middle-earth is loved by millions who do not share his religious beliefs.

How were his faith and his fiction related? Holly Ordway answers that question biographically, focusing on Tolkien’s spiritual development, a dramatic story that previous accounts of his life have left largely unexplored.

Tolkien’s faith was hard-won. His Anglican upbringing was overturned when his mother converted to Catholicism. Soon afterward, she died, leaving Tolkien under the guardianship of a Catholic priest, who forbade him for three years to see his Protestant sweetheart; he eventually married her nonetheless. The Great War, in which most of his close friends were killed, deepened Tolkien’s reliance on his faith but was followed by a barren stretch in which he “almost ceased to practise” his religion. Friendship with C.S. Lewis and success with The Hobbit were followed by another war and by turmoil in the Church that sternly tested Tolkien’s commitments.

The challenges and triumphs in his religious life are reflected in his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, that epic tale of endurance against the odds. As Ordway shows in her expertly researched and richly illustrated study, Tolkien’s faith and Tolkien’s fiction are intimately related, though in subtle and complex ways. This long-overdue spiritual biography gives new insight into his works by shedding fresh light on their author’s deepest-held convictions.

My Brother's Keeper (Hardcover – September 5, 2023) by Tim Powers

This is a ghost story. It is a story about werewolves, and things that go bump in the night. It is a story of an ill-fated land, the pathless moors of Northern England so well chronicled in Wuthering Heights. And it is the story of a real family whose destiny it is to deal with this darkly glamorous and dangerous world.

When young Emily Brontë helps a wounded man she finds at the foot of an ancient pagan shrine in the remote Yorkshire moors, her life becomes contentiously entwined with his. He is Alcuin Curzon, embittered member of a sect working to eradicate the resurgent plague of lycanthropy in Europe and northern England.

But Emily’s father, curate of the Haworth village church, is responsible for having unwittingly brought a demonic werewolf god to Yorkshire forty years ago—and it is taking possession of Emily’s beloved but foolish and dissolute brother. Curzon must regard Emily’s family as a dire threat.

In spite of being at deadly odds, Emily and Curzon find themselves thrown together in fighting werewolves, confronting pagan gods, even saving each other from the lures of moorland demons. And in a final battle that sweeps from the haunted village of Haworth to a monstrous shrine far out on the moors, the two of them must be reluctant allies against an ancient power that seems likely to take their souls as well as their lives.

So it seems that The Venture Bros. will finally be getting the series finale and climax that it always deserved. It began in 2003, twenty years ago, but it seems a lifetime. Well, I suppose if the length of a generation is defined as 21 years, it nearly is. Thank goodness they got around to this before any of the major voice-actors died.

Holly Ordway continues on her insightful investigation into Tolkien's life, and has quickly established herself in my mind as one of the go-to scholars in that area. It's amazing how things have gone from a fandom to an academic subject within my lifetime. 

And Tim Powers adds to what can only be termed as his 'supernatural Romantic authors' saga, begun in The Stress of Her Regard and continued in Hide Me Among the Graves. It should make for some fine reading in the coming autumnal penumbra.

"All You Owe Are Apologies": Into the Archive

 

Apologetics and the Christian Imagination: An Integrated Approach to Defending the Faith, by Holly Ordway – May 31, 2017 (206 pages) Hardcover

Holly Ordway, I find, is growing to be one of my increasingly favorite Christian scholars. The book just arrived today, so I have nothing to say about it just yet, but I expect an interesting read. Here is what Amazon has to say:

“Apologetics, the defense of the Faith, shows why our Christian faith is true—but it's much more than that. Apologetics isn't just the province of scholars and saints, but of ordinary men and women: parents, teachers, lay ministry leaders, pastors, and everyone who wants to develop a stronger faith, to understand why we believe what we believe, to know Our Lord better, and love him more fully.

“In Apologetics and the Christian Imagination: An Integrated Approach to Defending the Faith, Holly Ordway shows how an imaginative approach—in cooperation with rational arguments—is extremely valuable in helping people come to faith in Christ. Making a case for the role of imagination in apologetics, this book proposes ways to create meaning for Christian language in a culture that no longer understands words like 'sin' or 'salvation,' suggests how to discern and address the manipulation of language, and shows how metaphor and narrative work in powerful ways to communicate the truth. It applies these concepts to specific, key apologetics issues, including suffering, doubt, and longing for meaning and beauty.

“Apologetics and the Christian Imagination shows how Christians can harness the power of the imagination to share the Faith in meaningful, effective ways.” – Amazon.

Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You

 

Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography, by Holly Ordway (Coming August 28)

Given what I know about Holly Ordway, her personal and professional background (see Not God's Type and Tolkien's Modern Reading, elsewhere in this blog), this looks to be a solid, scholarly look at the history of his religious life, and not merely another evangelical 'search for spiritual meaning' in his published works. Biography, not literary analysis, except insofar as it touches his faith. For more about it, see its review on Amazon. I'm looking forward to it.

They Called Us All Rebels: Into the Real Live Library

 

Not God’s Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms (2014), by Holly Ordway.

“Ordway, an atheist academic, was convinced that faith was superstitious nonsense. As a well-educated college English professor, she saw no need for just-so stories about God. Secure in her fortress of atheism, she was safe (or so she thought) from any assault by irrational faith.

“But then something happened . . . How did she come to “lay down her arms” in surrender to Christ – and then, a few years later, enter into the Catholic Church?

“This is the moving account of her unusual journey. It is the story of an academic becoming convinced of the truth of Christianity on rational grounds – but also the account of God’s grace acting in and through her imagination.” – Amazon.

I have been interested in this book since I saw it come out in the Ignatius Press catalog years ago. After I saw the fine job she did with Tolkien’s Modern Reading, I thought it was finally time to pop on the purchase. And I was not disappointed.

Following Ordway’s journey from a secular childhood (the family celebrated Christmas, but only culturally) until her early thirties, when she began to investigate the claims of Christianity, I found once again that the works of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis (and many other examples in literature) had smuggled the proto-evangelion into her heart, ‘past watchful dragons’. As Lewis once affirmed, ”[One] who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.” As she studies more, she discovers that atheists and Christians are ‘divided by a common language’, confused by the different meanings they attribute to terms like ‘God’ and ‘sin’, talking at cross-purposes, and often only for victory. She moves “from unbelief, to Evangelicalism, and finally home to the Catholic Church.” Her journey is motivated both by imagination and reason; I found her tale moving and encouraging, and on my shelves, she has found a niche that is ‘Inklings adjacent’.

About the Author: Dr. Holly Ordway is Fellow of Faith and Culture at the Word on Fire Institute, and Visiting Professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Apologetics and the Christian Imagination: An Integrated Approach to Defending the Faith, and Not God’s Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms, and has contributed chapters to volumes such as C.S. Lewis at Poets' Corner, The Inklings and King Arthur, The Story of the Cosmos, and Pivotal Players. She is also a subject editor for the Journal of Inklings Studies, and a published poet. Her newest book is Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (Word on Fire Academic, 2021). – Amazon.

“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.” –C. S. Lewis.

Tolkien's Modern Reading by Holly Ordway

 

I got this book last week, and although it is a very ‘meaty’ volume, I read it (deeply absorbed) from about noon until 4 AM in the morning. I do not think I have been so engaged in a work about Tolkien since T. A. Shippey’s The Road to Middle-Earth published in 1982.

Ordway’s thesis is that we have been given a fallacious view of Tolkien as someone who read very little literature beyond the Middle Ages. She attributes this growing myth to certain simplistic views expressed by Humphrey Carpenter in the authorized biography of 1977, misunderstood statements by Tolkien himself that were taken out of context, and an amount of “filling in of DNA” from the opinions of notably anti-modern C. S. Lewis.  

She goes on to support her theory by carefully counting over 200 ‘modern’ works (defined for the purposes of the study as anything published from 1850 onward) by over 150 modern authors. Ordway cites only books that can be confirmed by Tolkien’s mention in his writings and letters, their presence in his library, their use in his teaching, interviews, and as reported by people close to him. She categorizes them neatly by type (novels, children’s books, etc.) and devotes whole chapters to big influences like George Macdonald, William Morris, and Rider Haggard. The book concludes with a neat little chart that organizes all the authors and their works. It is much more readable than the useful but rather dry listings from Oronzo Cilli's Tolkien's Library.

The scholarship on display is amazing, and gracefully shows the ten years she spent on the project. There is little that is theoretical, and what there is, is plainly marked and not included in the definite citations. There is a Photo Gallery illustrating the book (in color and half-tones) showing pictures Tolkien definitely would have seen, given his editions, and that strongly indicate an influence on his own visual style or imagination.

What Ordway’s work mainly reveals (without denying or downplaying the major medieval sources, interests, and influences on Tolkien) is that he was not some sort of crank or fuddy-duddy locked in his ivory tower but was engaged with his contemporary culture. He read works by Roy Campbell, T. S. Eliot, and James Joyce. I enjoyed finding out that he had read The Wizard of Oz and works by Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury. But what really tickled me was that he owned Stories of King Arthur by Blanche Winder, which was the first book I ever read of a version of the ‘Matter of Britain’ and which I have ever considered my protoevangelium to The Hobbit.

Holly Ordway’s study goes a great deal further in filling our portrait of Tolkien, who has always seemed to be a somewhat enigmatic figure. What I mainly took away from Ordway’s book (besides a meticulously and convincingly articulated case for her argument) was that Tolkien was not quite the somber, enigmatic figure that Carpenter presented us with over forty years ago. I always wondered, in the words of Charles Shulz’s Schroeder, something to effect of, “How could he have been Beethoven (or Tolkien, as the case might be) and not be happy?” Ordway leaves me with the impression somehow (without stating it out loud) that Tolkien was more cheerful than he has been given credit for.