February 9, 2020

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. Millions of young people have grown up reading about the elves, hobbits, orcs and wraiths of Middle Earth. But for all its impossible creatures, the trilogy is also profoundly “true” in its portrait of good and evil, sin and virtue, and the importance of human heroism in defeating wickedness.
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.

**Taken from Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.
Column for the Week of Oct 26, 2005