The Battle for Middle-Earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in "the Lord of the Rings"

Rating:
Summary: A Riveting, Different Examination of LOTR
Review: I was surprised to find an "about" book that was so riveting. Rutledge is up-front about where she's coming from: a Biblical viewpoint. She backs up her assertions with notations from Tolkien's own writings (from letters) about his intentions for his famous trilogy. No one character was "meant" to be Jesus, for example, although many of the characters show "Christ-likeness" in their actions, words, and attitudes. Rutledge helped me see this. I found this book to be a good read, which I was not expecting. I read it because of my love for the LOTR books, and I was not disappointed. Non-Christian readers may have some difficulty, but Tolkien was a Christian author and his work is steeped in Christian beliefs...although this is not overtly obvious most of the time. Rutledge includes Scripture references to illustrate her points, so anyone could look them up for verification. I highly recommend this book...it was worth the wait.

Rating:
Summary: I wish that. . .
Review: . . .everyone who says that JRRT's writing is banal, lacks serious intellectual underpinnings, or worse that he is racist, sexist, or a warmonger, or even worse that he is un- or antiChristian or a cryptoPagan would read this.

The Rev. Fleming Rutledge is one of the top preachers and popular theologians in the Episcopal Church today, and she has brought her well-ordered intellect to bear on LOTR (with a preliminary chapter on THE HOBBIT). She sometimes discusses the Jackson films, either for praise or blame (giving both where it is due), but mostly she focuses on the books.

Rating:
Summary: Divine Design Unveiled
Review: Although I haven't finished this book by Fleming Rutledge, I think it's going to be one of my favorites. The title is The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings.

Here is some background to her approach, in the author's own words:

Tolkien did not intend his story to be about Good vs. Evil with clearly defined boundaries. It is significant that in his letters he often puts "good" in quotation marks as if to say "supposedly" good. The book is about the way that evil (understood as power over others) has the capacity to insinuate its way into the hearts and souls of absolutely everyone. Not even Gandalf is immune. That, for me, is the greatness and the subtlety of [LOTR].

My own conviction is that the theological structure of the book (what I call the "deep narrative") pervades the entire work and is subtly disclosed by Tolkien by [his use] of the passive form of the verb in sentences ("Frodo was meant" to have the Ring) and the frequent references to "some other will." The observant reader will gradually come to feel an overpowering sense of the presence of God, or - in an honored theological term now unfortunately less used - Providence. Tolkien uses the passive the way the Bible does, to indicate the active, shaping presence of God ("their eyes were opened," "the rocks were split").*

Tolkien calls God Eru, "The One," or Ilúvatar, "Father of All." In his own words, the One "intrudes the finger of God" into the plot at various identifiable points. It is this One whom Tolkien calls The Writer of the Story, quoting with obvious approval the words of a reviewer who referred to "that one ever-present person who is never absent and never named." **

What seems especially impressive to me is that the author developed most of her understanding and insight simply out of her own love of LOTR. It wasn't until after she had sketched out her book that she read some of the secondary materials. "I came upon Tolkien with virtually no presuppositions. . . . I had a hunch that I had uncovered something in the book that had not yet been sufficiently celebrated."

Rather than break down her commentary into separate chapters with different themes, since she is tracing a single "theme" throughout all of LOTR, Rutledge has chosen to present her material as part of a running "retelling" of Tolkien's pertinent plot points, moving from chapter to chapter in sync with Tolkien's original six books. She tells us in the Introduction: "Instead of identifying various themes and then analyzing them, I have chosen to be guided by Tolkien's own professed trust in the revelatory power of narrative. This power is well known to all who have responded to Tolkien's exceptional skill as a storyteller; it is part of the mystique of the beloved tale. In my discussion, I wanted to hold on to Tolkien's narrative momentum, because it seemed to me that something of fundamental importance was being conveyed precisely through that momentum."

Inter-cut with the commentary and adding further richness to her insight are wonderful quotations from various other sources. This author is obviously well-read and well-rounded herself, and she elaborates on her discussion of LOTR with citations from numerous diverse sources: from Shakespeare to Joseph Conrad, from historical documents to poetry, from the Bible to George Orwell.

One of her reviewers commented: "Fear not! Fleming Rutledge has carefully avoided reducing Tolkien's thrilling stories to doctrine or his characters to typology." No, she has reduced nothing. She has expanded and enhanced and revealed depths I had only vaguely suspected.

Rutledge has said it is her hope that Battle will "give pleasure to those who may already have detected the presence of the sub-narrative, and insight to those who may have missed it on first reading." Whether you fall into one of these categories or not, if you love reading not only what Tolkien has written but also what others have written about him and his works, I recommend that you add this book to your collection.


*Excerpt from roundtable discussion about Return of the King posted on belief.net 12/03.
**From the Introduction to Battle.



Rating:
Summary: A revealing look at the deep narrative
Review: Prospective readers who are hesitating because of the theological tones of the title should stop worrying. Look beyond the author's name (which some of you may recognize as an Episcopalian priest and pretty well-known speaker) and the title indicating it will discuss Tolkien's "Divine Design". No matter what faith you do or do not profess, you cannot escape the fact that faith and scripture were very important to Tolkien himself. If you are interested in how it influenced him as a writer, read this book.

Rutledge has succeeded where few other books about Tolkien have: she presents the underlying grand themes of LOTR in a consistent, coherent and convincing manner. She makes the argument well, that Tolkien understood his work as theological at core, and that there is a continuous theological underpinning to the story. She calls this the "deep narrative", and throughout her book, she is consistently able to draw parallels between the surface narrative (the story) and the deeper theological one.

This is not to say that she at any time makes LOTR an "allegory" per se. LOTR is not, and was not intended by the author to be, a retelling of the Gospel story. LOTR is a stand-alone story, and can be read and enjoyed by anyone just by itself. In fact, the vast majority of us, who came to this story when teenagers or younger, loved the book from the moment we read it. It called something out of our souls, perhaps, and we understood something about the "deep narrative" simply by reading the story. The great gift of Tolkien is his ability to show us core truth about humanity this way, by storytelling.

Nevertheless, his devout Catholic Christianity and understanding of the influence of sin on all, underpins his story. Rutledge is excellent in discussion of how Tolkien shows us the good and evil in all creatures, and the necessity of reliance on Providence and grace. You will find a good explanation of Evil as a third force, between God and his incarnate creatures. She frequently mentions Tolkien's use of "passive voice" to indicate that the characters in LOTR are being used by the "other forces at work". While this comes as no surprise to any careful reader (I am sure all of us have noticed these continued references by Gandalf to "other forces" and being "meant to have" something or other!), once noticed, the passive voice becomes obvious throughout.

Rutledge supports her argument with frequent allusions to Bible passages, both Old and New Testament. And she convincingly argues that Tolkien really believed the small were being called to confound the wise, both in real life and in his book. She argues that scriptural underpinning for LOTR comes through both as direct influence on the story, but more often on the influence on Tolkien himself, who then wrote his values into LOTR. His understanding of the paradox of free will and the call of God, for instance.

All readers interested in the scriptural and theological influences on Tolkien (and they were considerable) will be interested in this book, whether you agree with the entire thesis or not. She does tend to over-reach, at times, for allusions to scripture. She is obviously not a fan of the movie, which she alludes to several times in her footnotes. But she is a careful reader herself. She came very late to the realm of Middle Earth, and does not bring years of "Tolkienalia" to the book, and this is a very great strength. Her decision to discuss the story as it unfolds, rather than break it down into grand concepts, was inspired and makes the book very easy to read.