Professor assesses Tolkien's 'Catholic vision' in 'Rings' trilogy

Published: 2005-10-27

NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy offers a Catholic approach to -- and prescription for -- modern society's ills, a Baylor University professor told a crowd at the University of Notre Dame Oct. 25. "Tolkien has been a writer of such immense popularity in our time because he gave us such a deepened Catholic vision and understanding of the world," said Ralph C. Wood, a professor of theology and literature at the Baptist university in Waco, Texas. Wood gave the first lecture in the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture's fourth annual Catholic culture series. Three other talks were scheduled for November on the series theme, "Valor, Fellowship and Sacrifice: Tolkien's Catholic Myth." Tolkien's view is Catholic in both the general sense of "universal" -- an unpopular idea in a world of identity politics and fragmented diversity -- and in the Catholic sense of a deeply sacramental understanding of reality, Wood said.

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