Archbishop's Column for the Week of Oct 26, 2005:
As every parent and teacher knows, some of the best learning never takes place in a classroom. We learn most deeply from the example of others and from personal experience. But we’re also shaped by the stories that touch our hearts and fire our imaginations.
No one understood this better than the great British Catholic scholar, J.R.R. Tolkien. In writing the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Tolkien single-handedly created the modern fantasy universe.
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As a committed Catholic, Tolkien wove the Christian story into the fabric of Middle Earth. It’s no accident that Frodo and Sam finally destroy the power of Sauron, the Dark Lord, on a date that just happens to be March 25 — the great feast of the Annunciation on the Church calendar; the day God took on human flesh. Tolkien did that deliberately. In fact, the “Lord of the Rings” is filled with scores of similar Christian clues and metaphors.
Tolkien’s Anglican friend and fellow scholar, C.S. Lewis, did the same. One of the greatest Christian apologists of the 20th century, Lewis is remembered for classics like “Mere Christianity,” “The Abolition of Man,” “Surprised by Joy,” “The Screwtape Letters,” “The Problem of Pain” and “The Great Divorce.” But maybe his best work was his storytelling for young people.
In writing his seven-book “Chronicles of Narnia,” Lewis created a fantastic saga of dwarves, witches, trolls and centaurs, much like Tolkien. And again like Tolkien, Lewis’ Great Lion — Aslan — is unmistakably a figure of Jesus Christ. As for Aslan’s father, the Emperor Across the Sea: Well, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to infer Who that might be.
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