You’re right, but also: “J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic from boyhood, and he described The Lord of the Rings in particular as a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision".[1][T 1] While he insisted it was not an allegory, it contains numerous themes from Christian theology.”
Fair enough - I guess I’d just assumed that his dislike for allegory included thematic imagery, but that is a bit of an odd connection to make on my part. I hadn’t heard that quote before, and I was actually unaware that Tolkien was Catholic. I’d always had it in my head that he and Lewis stood in juxtaposition to one another - Lewis being the devout Christian and Tolkien being the Atheist/Agnostic. So, with this in mind, I thought that was a facet of what made their friendship so interesting. I see that I was mistaken!
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u/CobaltEmu Apr 09 '23
You’re right, but also: “J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic from boyhood, and he described The Lord of the Rings in particular as a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision".[1][T 1] While he insisted it was not an allegory, it contains numerous themes from Christian theology.”
Straight from Wikipedia.