Is [i]The Lord of the Rings[/i] really Catholic?

[KingTheoden]

I thought one of the reasons was to prevent a personal cult type situation.

I love audiosancto. I have been listening to it for years. While watching the kids I usually can't read, but I can listen to a sermon. I have found it very spiritually edifying. It is upsetting to think that I cannot trust the priests on there. Especially since the one in question is my favorite.

Is it so hard to have a shepherd you can trust?

Man is fallen and priests are not perfect.  Don't make the mistake of throwing the baby out with the bathwater due to one questionable sermon regarding something that, in the grand scheme of things, is relatively irrelevant.

Archer is right.  Let's not make a joke out of our Father like Ham, but rather let us cover his nakedness as did Sem and Japheth.

The priest is wrong in his criticism of Tolkien and has probably been smothered with stifling, imagination-less and wonder killing mentalities of 1950s Catholicism.  I'm talking Thomism in horse pills, three times a day, 15 minute conveyer belt Low Masses and Baptism of Desire for all.

I really must credit Charles Coulombe for opening my mind to the sense of Catholic wonder.  We should appreciate that Creation is far more interesting than neon lights and endless strip malls.  Modernity has nearly extinguished our sense of dependency on God for all things.  And as such, our sense of the supernatural and fantastic has become dull.

No surprise that as people ridicule the notion of the fairies, belief in space aliens has become common (despite a clear papal condemnation of the notion.)

So as St. Augustine writes, let's make up for what we perceive to be a deficiency in Father's outlook by living out such principles ourselves.

[Gardener]

3rd and final part:

http://www.olmcfssp.org/cms/images/uploads/On_Criticizing_Tolkien_III.pdf

My Pastor has written two critiques of the talk in question, and here are the links (originally bulletin inserts)

http://www.olmcfssp.org/cms/images/uploads/On_Criticizing_Tolkien_I.pdf

http://www.olmcfssp.org/cms/images/uploads/On_Criticizing_Tolkien_II.pdf

They were originally printed double-sided, so begin on the right side of page 1, under the title.

[rbjmartin]

I think Adeodatus's position is somewhat validated by the points Fr. Jackson made in that third part of his criticism. You really have to wonder about the prudence of a priest who so haphazardly levels criticism at others while committing multiple logical fallacies and possibly engaging in calumny. I would certainly take his words with a grain of salt with regard to controversial topics.

[OzarkCatholic]

Fr Sean Kopczynski finally got his 'faculties' taken away.

Checks out.

[misericonfit]

Answer: It is profoundly Catholic.

One of the best proofs of this, is the series of essays about it - and about the legendarium generally - on the website "The Flame Imperishable": https://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/ which is "A blog about Tolkien, St. Thomas, and other purveyors of the Philosophia Perennis." The emphasis is very strongly on Tolkien and the legendarium.

That the legendarium is Catholic in spirit, emerges from the implied docttines of Providence. free will, and the interplay between them.

That Melkor cannot create, but can only pervert, presupposes the doctrine that evil is a parasite upon good. That this is so, is shown throughout the legendarium.

Aragorn is, in almost all respects, the ideal Catholic Monarch. He even dies well.

Gollum's craving for the Ring is a study in excessive "attachment to things of earth". It is one of many  examples in which characters fail to "put their loves in order". Morgoth fails to do so. Feänor fails to do so. The Numenoreans eventually fail to do so. Saruman fails to do so. Gollum fails to do so. Boromir fails to do so.

There is a respect for hallowed places as special, and not to be put to "common" uses. This comes out in the description of the Meneltarma, the holy mountain of Numenor. It is so sacred that it is climbed only  thrice in the year. No-one speaks on its top but the King alone, and only to give thanks to Eru Iluvatar. In Minas Tirith, Rath Dinen, the "Silent Street", is reserved for the tombs of the Kings & the Stewards, and no speech is permitted. Great respect is shown by the cultures of Elves & Men to the remains of the dead.

There is only One Creator. The Ainur, the "holy ones", are "the offspring of his thought"; and their power to make is purely sub-creative. They can sub-create well, only in dependence on their Creator; when they try, like Melkor, to set up on their own, their power of sub-creation becomes no more than a power to tyrannise and pervert and ruin both those who are less than they, and themselves.

These are just some of the indications of the theological, philosophical & religious character of the books.

[misericonfit]

I didn't read The Lord of the Rings critically. I read it as a fantasy epic, and enjoyed it in that light. I would be interested in reading an annotated version, though, to be able to understand any hidden layers of meaning.

The nearest I know of to an annotated LOTR is Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull's "The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion".

It is thoroughly readable, and very thorough.

[Hannelore]

I didn't read The Lord of the Rings critically. I read it as a fantasy epic, and enjoyed it in that light. I would be interested in reading an annotated version, though, to be able to understand any hidden layers of meaning.

The nearest I know of to an annotated LOTR is Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull's "The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion".

It is thoroughly readable, and very thorough.

Yes, I have a copy somewhere.

[Melkor]

That Melkor cannot create, but can only pervert

Say it to my face, mortal.

Kidding aside I hate how people try and draw comparisons. Tolkien didn't write the Lord of the rings and all his other books with the intent of it being a mirror of Catholicism. He actually always denied any intent to do so, writing the books for the sake of his own mythology ideals, master linguist and historian that he was.

Yeah of course there are elements of Catholicism in it, practically any good story does to some degree. The classic good vs evil that is as old as the first story told, the garden of Eden. But it's not something he intentionally did, rather his staunch Catholic background naturally influenced, inadvertently, his masterpiece.

[Heinrich]

Fr Sean Kopczynski finally got his 'faculties' taken away.

Checks out.

That people are gloating over an otherwise phenomenal priest's removal from active ministry due to his opinion on a work of fiction(which I could care less about in this particular issue) pisses me off. BTW, where's Father Jackson now?