Title Author
Rating
Times Read
Tolkien, Man and Myth: A Literary Life Joseph Pearce 8 1
 The past few years have found me 'discovering' where a lot of my deeply held convictions and ideas about faith and the practice thereof come from. Reading through Joseph Pearce's "Tolkien, Man and Myth: A Literary Life" has been one of those discoveries.    
     At the time I purchased it, the book was somewhat unique in that it looked at Tolkien as a man of faith. Many biographies have been written concerning Tolkien, but none focused as primarily as Pearce does on Tolkien's faith practice. The book further convinced me of an belief I've had since my early years as a Protestant-raised Christian; Catholics are Christians.
For some, this statement is entirely banal. For others, the statement is nothing short of heresy. Raised in a Baptist church and therefore Protestant by denominational background, my concept of Christianity was always fairly ecumenical, and extended to embrace all three of the major branches. Especially after studying the Prostestant Reformation in Social Studies, I came to the conclusion that God had seen fit to leave the Catholic church to be his most prominent emissary for over 1000 years. Even if the Protestants were right about the corruption of the time, it couldn't dilute the truth that the Roman Catholic church had preserved the Gospels and served the Great Commission. As Tolkien himself said, "What would Christianity now be if the Roman Church had in fact been destroyed?"
    This book was a delight to read; I first read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as a boy in Elementary School, between grades four and five. By grade six and into my early Junior High School years I struggled through The Silmarillion, and can recall giving a speech about Tolkien's views on story from his essay "On Faerie Stories." Tolkien's fiction had a profound impact on my life in the years leading up to my conversion experience at age 14. To have Pearce organize the themes and underlying Christian influence within Tolkien's work opened my eyes more fully than ever before to how strongly Tolkien's ideas about God, Heaven and Hell were imbedded into my mind solely through the reading of his fiction.
    The current Tolkien-mania due to the success of Peter Jackson's films has birthed a plethora of books by Christians on Tolkien and his writings. I find it to be a bit ironic considering the chastisement I received from some people in the church growing up for reading this "fantasy stuff." Further, in years past when I would say that my favorite Christian author would have to be Tolkien, staunch Baptists would reply, "but wasn't he Catholic?" Suddenly Tolkien is the patron saint in circles where patron saints aren't even revered, and everyone is giving their opinion on the theology of Lord of the Rings.
    Pearce has a definite right to be producing a book on Tolkien's beliefs. The book is thoroughly researched and Pearce's points are well supported. The final pages of the book are long letters by Tolkien himself, so that at times Pearce is acting less the author and more the talk-show host. This book is a must-have for anyone who wants to understand the most powerful motivating factor behind the man who created the myth of Middle-Earth.
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Book Review: Tolkien, Man and Myth

Legend
10
 This is on either my fiction or non-fiction "top 10 books" list.
9
 Will definitely read again and recommend to everyone! Probably kept me up all night.
8
 An excellent book that either changed my thinking or was difficult to put down.
7
 A page turner or thought provoker.
6
 Worth reading.
5
 Better than average within it's genre.
4
 Typical of it's genre: no surprises.
3
 Creative writing assignment that somehow got published.
2
 Will rot your brain.
1
 Kept reading because I was locked in a cage with it.
0
 Piece of crap.
UF
unfinished