Outside Reading 4: Shannon Rose

Lewis v. Tolkien

           Throughout our class, we have discussed and even mimicked the dynamic between a group of friends that met in a bar and discussed everything from their personal lives to their literary works. As an additional reading to the class, I read segments of The Lord of the Rings in hopes of finding some commonalities between the theological symbols between Lewis and Tolkien. There are evidently Christian symbols in both Lewis' Narnia Series and Lewis' Lord of the Rings series. However, the symbols in Tolkien's books are far more obscure. I believe that if the reader did not have Christian background or minimal prior knowledge of Christian principles, he or she would not notice the theological implications of Tolkien's series. Whereas if the reader had at least a taste of Christian theology, the symbols would be quite evident in Lewis' series. In doing a bit of research, I came to realize that Tolkien actually advised Lewis against such strong references in his work. It's as if he believed that his method of disguising theological symbols was more powerful or held far more significance than the slightly (or not so slightly) less subtle.