Christian, You’re Wrong About The Lord of the Rings

Many have criticized the new Prime Video television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for being “woke.” Following the recent Hollywood trend, the creators of this new show took a beloved story and injected their progressive ideology into it. Story, character, and casting decisions are clear winks and nods to feminist and “antiracist” talking points.

Whether for that reason or others, ratings and reviews have not been great. That’s a big kick in the pants to the show makers, since the series cost literally $1 billion to produce and market. Some critics have suggested this is Exhibit A of “Get woke, go broke.”

Some Christians may be even more frustrated than other fans about Middle-Earth’s wandering into Leftism, since The Lord of the Rings is supposed to be a Christian story. And that’s the part of this conversation I’d like to focus on, because…well, I’ve got a hot take.

Here it is: The Lord of the Rings was never Christian.

This is no doubt a controversial opinion, since LOTR is often presumed to be one of the great examples of Christian fiction in the 20th century. It’s spoken of in approving tones, at times, from even the most conservative of pulpits. After all, so goes the thinking, J.R.R. Tolkien was a Roman Catholic, and he inevitably imbedded his worldview into his works.

So, how can I dare say it’s not Christian? I’ll explain, first by describing what makes art “Christian,” then by showing how Tolkien’s stories don’t fit the bill. Finally, I’ll point out the broader implication of this whole issue.

What Makes Art “Christian”

To understand what something is, we often have to understand what it’s not. So, here are three thoughts about what doesn’t make art “Christian.”

1. Christian influence doesn’t make art Christian.

Being influenced by Christianity doesn’t necessarily make art Christian. So, I’m not saying LOTR isn’t influenced by Christianity. Almost everything in our culture is. Christianity has provided the underlying moral framework for the West for well over a thousand years. Do Christian themes appear in Tolkien’s works? Of course. But that doesn’t mean the works are Christian. There’s a higher standard for taking that title. Otherwise, the title is useless.

2. Catholicism doesn’t make art Christian.

To address the issue of Tolkien’s religion, “Roman Catholic” is not synonymous with “Christian.” Catholicism misunderstands and distorts the gospel of Christ by adding requirements to salvation, and exalting the traditions of men over the Word of God. So, the fact that Tolkien was Catholic shouldn’t give anyone confidence that his works are Christian. If his Catholicism influenced his works, it could just as well have influenced them to be non-Christian, since Catholicism is non-Christian.

There are elements of Catholicism that agree with faithful Christianity, so yes, those elements could reasonably seep into a Catholic artist’s work, but there’s no guarantee. And, there’s no guarantee they won’t arrive tainted and warped. To state it differently, any time Catholicism influences art to be Christian, it’s in spite of itself.

3. The artist being a Christian doesn’t make art Christian.

In my view, whether or not a piece of art can be considered “Christian” doesn’t really depend on the spiritual status of the creator, anyway. In fact, it doesn’t necessarily depend on the creator’s intent, either. The artist’s intent may be an important clue for understanding the art, but the art may have significance beyond what the artist intended.

This is not to say meaning is completely subjective; quite the opposite, it’s to say a work of art has objective meaning separate from the artist or from any human audience. The objective meaning is whatever it means to God. In light of this, it’s possible for a Christian to make un-Christian art, and it’s possible for a non-Christian to make Christian art—though, in either case, it may be on accident. I’ll explain in a moment. But first let’s go ahead and answer the question, what does make art “Christian”?

What Makes Art Christian

It seems to me that a work of art should only be considered “Christian” if, at minimum, it represents Christian values and doesn’t distort the truth about God, the world, morality, or other biblical teaching.

So, now maybe you can understand why a Christian could fail to make Christian art, and a non-Christian could make Christian art without meaning to. In the Christian’s case, he may be aiming to make art that represents Christian values and doesn’t distort truth, but he may fall short. Why’s that? He may have an error in his theology, such as his understanding of God, and that error may come out in his art. It may be that he’s not been discipled well enough, or he hasn’t given enough careful thought to his subject matter, so that his art ends up representing falsehood rather than truth.

On the other hand, a non-Christian may create art without any thought to Christianity, but may end up portraying values and truth claims that are entirely consistent with it. It’s essentially the same phenomenon as the atheist who insists that it’s wrong to tell a lie. He has no reason, in his own worldview, to believe that or insist on it—so, it’s not an atheistic statement he’s making. It’s a Christian statement. The fact that an atheist is making the statement doesn’t make the statement any less Christian. Atheists often make Christian statements, because of common grace, or, in the apostle Paul’s words, because “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Romans‬ ‭1:19‬ ‭ESV‬‬). So, in the same way, an atheist or some other non-Christian might incidentally make Christian art.

What all this means is that it would have been possible for Tolkien, even without being a Christian, to have created Christian art. But he didn’t.

Why LOTR Isn’t Christian

There are a number of things about Tolkien’s mythology that disqualify it from being Christian, but I’ll address just one—a fundamental one. In Tolkien’s make-believe universe, the omniscient and omnipotent deity, who created everything, is called Eru Ilúvatar or The One. To Tolkien, though, this was not just a made-up character.

The wiki Tolkien Gateway explains, “Tolkien understood Eru not as a ‘fictional deity’ but as a name in a fictional language for the actual monotheistic God, although in a mythological or fictional context.” In other words, Eru is not supposed to be a make-believe god, but the real God. Tolkien’s story is supposed to be a kind of speculative historical fiction, as if it’s an answer to the question, “What would the universe be like if God made it this way instead of the way He really made it?”

In that kind of imagined universe, whatever else you may imagine about it, you still have to portray God accurately—because even if He had made the world differently than He did, He would be the same. Does Tolkien portray Eru in a way that accurately reflects the real God? No, he doesn’t.

A God That Has Parts

For example, in Tolkien’s mythology, the first beings that Eru created were “the Ainur,” which are divine beings that proceeded to help him with the rest of creation. Could God have possibly done it that way, if He had chosen? Sure. But then there’s this detail, which changes things: Tolkien Gateway explains, “Each Ainu came from a part of [Eru’s] mind.”

This disqualifies Eru from being identified as the real God, because the real God has no “parts” to His mind. God has no parts at all, because He is entirely unified and indivisible. This doctrine is called divine simplicity. It means God is not composed of different characteristics that are somehow mashed together. Rather, His attributes are all ultimately one and the same.

Eru, on the other hand, has parts. That means Tolkien’s mythology misrepresents the essence of God, showing Eru to be some other, false god. Eru is so fundamentally un-Christian that it’s apparent in his first act of creation!

A God Seldom Worshiped

Another example of how Eru cannot be the real God is that “Eru was considered transcendental, removed and distant from the affairs of [Earth] and was seldom worshiped…” As Tolkien himself wrote, “the High Elves had no 'religion' (or religious practices, rather) for those had been in the hands of the gods, praising and adoring Eru 'the One', Ilúvatar the Father of All…” — Does this description sound remotely like the true God? Certainly not, because the true God’s primary motivation is to be glorified, to be worshipped. Jesus said, “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John‬ ‭4:23‬ ‭ESV‬‬). That’s His mission. That’s why He created anything in the first place.

Knowing that about God, it is unimaginable that He would have created sentient, rational beings that He was content to not have worship Him. He deserves to be worshipped and glorified by all of His creation. If He had created Middle-Earth, its inhabitants would not be excluded. This places Eru so far out of character from the true God that we can again conclude he misses the mark. Tolkien essentially made up a pagan god and said that it’s the true God. That’s kind of a big problem.

Taking It Seriously

Maybe, at this point, Tolkien would respond to me as he once responded to another critic: “I really do think you are being too serious.” If so, I might reply, “You, sir, are the one who brought God into it.“ It matters what Christians believe. They shouldn’t be going around believing that a story with unbiblical ideas about God is a “Christian” story. In a generation when entertainment influences so much of what people believe, it’s all the more critical to point out such errors.

Remember our description of what makes art “Christian”? A work of art is “Christian” if it represents Christian values and doesn’t distort the truth about God, the world, morality, or other biblical teaching. Tolkien’s story distorts the truth about God, and therefore disqualifies itself from being considered Christian art.

The Broader Implication

While it’s understandable for Christians to take issue with The Rings of Power because of its woke messaging, we should also take issue with the source material because of its own problems—including its misrepresentation of God. We shouldn’t concern ourselves with the new show’s departure from Tolkien’s vision. We should concern ourselves with both of their departure from biblical truth. Here, there is a broader point to make:

It’s a clever ploy of the enemy to get us to celebrate something as “Christian” that is not, and then to defend that thing against other things that are also not Christian. There we sit, in between two non-Christian (even anti-Christian) things, fighting a battle that is not our own. This is Satan‘s version of controlled opposition.

Rather than pick a side between two anti-Christian forces, it’s better that we stand on the walls of our own fortress—our biblical Christian faith, rightly understood—and fire at both enemies which have raised themselves against the knowledge of God. But how do we recognize enemies that we have long held to be allies? We must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. We must regularly reevaluate the traditions we practice and the things we like. Sometimes we may find we’ve been falling for one of the devil’s tricks.