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There's more to Middle-earth than meets the eye, argue Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware in Finding God in The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien, a devout Christian, helped bring C.S. Lewis into the faith and met weekly with Lewis and Charles Williams at an Oxford pub for heated religious and literary discussions that informed The Lord of the Rings. Although Bruner and Ware avoid any simplistic claim that Tolkien's saga is "a covert allegory of the Gospel," the authors assert that the books have evangelistic power because they "can open the heart's back door when the front door is locked." Twenty-one short chapters describe various scenes and themes from Tolkien's work in order to illustrate truths of Christian life. For instance, Frodo and Sam's awareness that their adventures are part of a larger story "reflects the Christian understanding of providence, that we are all part of a story being written by the creator of all that is." Finding God successfully clarifies the ways that Tolkien's Christian worldview influenced the creation of his fantasy world, while respecting the artistic integrity of his achievement. --Michael Joseph Gross
From Publishers Weekly
Bruner, v-p for Focus on the Family's Resource Group, and co-author Ware say that they have written this book "to help fans of The Lord of the Rings discover how the rich fabric of Tolkien's fantasy world enhances a Christian understanding of our real world." They assume that readers will already be familiar with the entire trilogy. Each chapter explores a theme found in Tolkien's series, illustrates it from the story and then shows how this theme can also be found in the Bible. Most of the themes illustrated here that our small individual stories are part of a larger story that gives them more meaning, that we are called to undertake challenging missions beyond our comfort zones or that evil powers are actively scheming in the world will already have been obvious to Christian readers with the intelligence needed to read through the entire trilogy. Readers already familiar with the trilogy will find a few gems of insight, especially the epilogue on Tolkien's literary theory. But it seems much more likely that this book will appeal to those who, having seen the movie, are deciding whether to read the books for the first time. (Nov.)Forecast: Timed to coincide with the release of New Line Cinema's movie The Lord of the Rings, this guide will find an audience, but probably a different one from that which the authors envisioned.
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