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Talk:The Lord of the Rings (view source)
Revision as of 11:06, March 11, 2007
, 11:06, March 11, 2007no edit summary
:Thank you for that. I must admit that I was not aware Gandalf was an "angel." I am not sure that does make a difference to my concerns. Gandalf is obviously a fictional character and hence not "really" either a wizard or angel. The point is that Gandalf and other aspects of the novels <i>appear</i> to make magic and the occult acceptable in a way that they should not be. Admittedly, if all the magic used by the good guys were to be recast as miracles or the divine power of God manifested in Middle-Earth, this problem would disappear; but if that is the basis of "magic" in Tolkien's view, then it is a deeply hidden rationale. To a casual reader, there appears to be magic and occult influences that are of use to otherwise heroic characters. If Gandalf is an angel, though, I promise not to put him to death. ;-) --<font color=navy>[[User:JesusSaves|JesusSaves]] 05:40, 11 March 2007 (EDT)</font>
:Thank you for that. I must admit that I was not aware Gandalf was an "angel." I am not sure that does make a difference to my concerns. Gandalf is obviously a fictional character and hence not "really" either a wizard or angel. The point is that Gandalf and other aspects of the novels <i>appear</i> to make magic and the occult acceptable in a way that they should not be. Admittedly, if all the magic used by the good guys were to be recast as miracles or the divine power of God manifested in Middle-Earth, this problem would disappear; but if that is the basis of "magic" in Tolkien's view, then it is a deeply hidden rationale. To a casual reader, there appears to be magic and occult influences that are of use to otherwise heroic characters. If Gandalf is an angel, though, I promise not to put him to death. ;-) --<font color=navy>[[User:JesusSaves|JesusSaves]] 05:40, 11 March 2007 (EDT)</font>
In 1962, before the "The Lord of the Rings" became well-known, the people who introduced me to it described it as "Christian fiction." If anything with "magic" in it is deemed anti-Christian, it seems to me you'd have to include the Tales of the Brothers Grimm, most of Hans Christian Andersen's stories, two-thirds of all operas, most of Disney's animated cartoons (think of every cartoon in which a character waves a magic wand... think of ''The Sorceror's Apprentice, with Mickey Mouse himself performing magic), most of Disney's live-action movies (Doesn't Mary Poppins perform magic? Isn't "flubber" a magical substance), Ovid's Metamorphoses, ''The Wizard of Oz,'' the Arabian Nights, and a good portion of both the pop ''and'' high culture of Western civilization.
The famous British Catholic Cardinal Newman wrote that "I used to wish the Arabian tales were true: my imagination ran on unknown influences, on magical powers, and talismans."
As my son used to say when we worried about his seeing guns and violence on TV, "It's OK, Dad, it's just a movie. It's not real." [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 07:06, 11 March 2007 (EDT)