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The Lord of the Rings: A Classic
I was very young when I was first introduced to The Hobbit. I could not have been older than seven when I was swept completely into the journey with Bilbo and the dwarves on their way to reclaim treasure from the dragon. When the story was over, I wanted the magic to continue, so I sought out my father’s copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, which was much more difficult to understand. (Tolkien loved him some semicolons, and I was a second grader.)
The truth was, I wasn’t quite ready for Frodo’s epic adventure then, so I had to put it aside for a while, disappointed by my first introduction to Tolkien’s next generation. I thought Bilbo’s nephew, Sam, Pippin, and Merry were a bit boring. It took them too long to do anything. I did not get beyond them stealing mushrooms, as if that was even noteworthy. Already cynical, I snapped the cover shut and quietly returned that tale to the bookcase to collect dust again in my parents’ home.
Fortunately, very soon after this, I had a birthday. I unwrapped a boxed collection of books about a place called Narnia. (I still have that same, now battered box in my office today, the spines of the well-loved novels contained within, cracked and fading from a girl’s constant rereading.)
Upon adult reflection, that proved to be the exact right time for me to meet Lucy, Susan, Peter, and Edmund. I could understand Aslan before I understood Aslan. I think now that C.S. Lewis kept me enthralled with fantasy and, in this way, he would serve as a kind of bridge that would take me back to his fellow Inkling.
Time rolled by, as it inevitably does, and there was a summer evening on which I went with my mother to the library with no particular agenda apart from having something to do. Wanting to escape from the mundane of an endless August, I somehow found Smith of Wooten Major, which I read sitting cross-legged on the commercial orange carpet in the middle of the fiction aisle as grownups walked around me as if I were an island. (If you’ve not heard of it, this is a wonderful Tolkien tale about magical cakes and the Land of Faery that lingered with me long after I forgot the title.)
By then I was a mature 10 or 11, and my hunger for Middle Earth began to rumble again.
Something must have changed about how I read stories because the next thing I knew, I had blown the dust off The Fellowship’s cover and consumed The Lord of the Rings in full. The complex sentences that had once meandered aimlessly like the feet of homeless rangers now rang with the music of elves, the rhythm of poetry.
Looking back at my own intellectual development, I suppose that was the exact right time for me to meet Strider in Bree. I could understand the clash between evil and good that is illustrated by Mordor and the West long before I understood the nature of evil and good. I felt I had entered a realm that helped me see my own world in a different way while entertaining me as much as The Hobbit had once done. That is something only a masterpiece can accomplish.
Of course, I understand Tolkien is not everyone’s cup of tea. His style is that of a man who reveled in classic works. He takes his time on paper, though I find this builds suspense if one is patient enough to let the action unfold. To be enveloped by his story … to start to like his semicolons.
For some reason, I felt inspired to pick up Tolkien’s magnum opus a couple nights ago and have started reading again from the beginning, and I feel thus far as if I’m spending time with a very old, very good friend.
Additionally, I know I will get something new from the story this time around because I have changed, as we tend to do, since the last time I read it. I am already annoying my husband by keeping the reading lamp on late.
I know I am not alone in my own taste in literature as Tolkien’s works are loved by many. Still, I wonder what other books have meant as much to others as The Lord of the Rings does to me. What works do you reread with joy? Why?
Published in Literature
If I observe a Catholic engaging in rituals that do not reflect Catholic doctrine, and I then assume that those rituals are in fact part of Catholic doctrine, I am still ignorant.
I’ve spent a good deal of time defending Catholic doctrine from criticism by Protestants. Most of the time I have to say “Why do you think that is true? Did you read it in the Catechism?” They answer is almost always “What’s that?” If you want to know what Catholics believe, read their texts, listen to their leaders. Not crazy Auntie Bess who buries statues.
Your moment is over.
But you can’t both be right…I know: dance off!
Given some of @spin‘s recent adventures, I think he hasn’t got a chance.
It is a den iniquity, a hive of villainy, and a digital fortress of ill-repute.
And open to all.
Wow! I am truly impressed…no sarcasm, no snark. That is REALLY cool!
I know you are joking, but…
My view is that there are primary issues of faith, and secondary issues of faith. The differences between Catholics and Protestants are, in my view, solely in the second category. A lot of Catholics and Protestants disagree with me on that. But the debate between us have been going on since Paul and Peter. We won’t sort them out, if those two couldn’t. So, if you subscribe to the primary tenets of Christianity, and being a Catholic brings you joy and fulfillment, then I’m happy for you.
If Ricochet had nested comments, I’d partake. But we don’t, so I don’t. It’s 22k+ comments and counting. You can’t keep track of all that.
I’d be more confident judging Catholics by their doctrines if more Catholics actually knew those doctrines.
I’ll say amen to that one, and I’m a baby Catholic who has years of learning to do…. I have found converts are better than cradle Catholics as sources of information. Perhaps it’s the same with Methodists, but I am acutely aware of this “not knowing much” thing at the moment.
This is a great point. My dad, for all his faults, is a true believer in what you are saying. Which is why I went to Catholic school, for a long time, and why he insisted we learn Catholic doctrine. The same can be said for Protestants. I am absolutely floored at how many evangelical Christians I know who have no concept of church history past Paul.
You aren’t supposed to keep track, just bask in the fun.
Ain’t you got some place to be?
Don’t have to leave for about an hour.
Leave early.
I think not knowing the details is endemic to most faiths.
Are you talking about going back to the pit? Apparently @bossmongo knows a balrog who lurks there. It might be safer to circulate elsewhere… :)
Probably so. I think it’s more obvious in Catholicism, however, because there is not as much personal interpretation, emotive “feeling” of direction.
This is not to say that many Protestants don’t engage in systematic theology because they do, but I’ve certainly met many an evangelical who didn’t think the theology was at all important.
This idea would need to be fleshed out quite a bit, but it’s what I see as the root of a lot of “not knowing the details.”
I will say, however, that I miss the Bible study that happened right before services when I was a Methodist. I don’t understand why Catholics eschew this practice. RCIA was not exactly robust. It would be helpful.
We had one such character on our church council. He told our pastor that he didn’t think the pastor’s seminary education was really any benefit to the ministry. I can’t even imagine thinking that way.
When I was a Catholic, we never did bible studies. I asked a priest about it once. He said “It’s my job to read and interpret scripture. It’s your job to listen to me.” This is also a mindset I don’t understand.
“The Bereans were of more noble character, because they examined the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true.” To paraphrase…
I concur. Catholicism is also thick with centuries of writings and added practices; it’s Byzantine, Baroque, and so much more (including Medieval).
Yet this is by definition bad Reformation theology.
Sola Scriptura + biblical originalism. That‘s Reformation theology. That requires studying the objective facts about the text, about history, about logic, etc.
It is something I struggle with constantly. Coming from a different tradition in which Bible study served as that exact examination AND a way to find a little community within the church, I am baffled by this as well. The thing is that the priest often doesn’t teach much at all. The homily is very short. It’s rarely in depth. Some are downright horrible.
I go for communion, but I must go my own way often for my mind to be fed.
The thing is… from what I’ve learned (on my own), I just think the Catholics have it more right.
If anyone who participated in this conversation wants more insight into Tolkien, you’ll enjoy this post by Brian Wolf.