/lit/ - Literature

Tolkien's work is suffused with Christianity, and you can tell because he believes very sincerely in some of the core ideas of what Christianity teaches, and his writing is filled with them, and they especially come out in The Lord of the Rings.

Chiefest among them is the idea of mercy. Sparing your enemies and being kind to them even when you have no reason to do so. This plays out in the story of Gollum. Both Bilbo and Frodo spare his life when it would probably have been wiser to kill him. Why? Because they pity him. Because they choose to be kind to him and have mercy on him. And yet this leads to the destruction of the Ring. The mercy of Bilbo and Frodo leads to the completion of the quest, when their own virtue would have failed. Pagan virtue, heroic virtue, fails in the end. But Christian mercy wins the day, in ways unlooked for.

The Hobbits themselves are very Christian, because they are small and meek, and kind and simple. They are not "the great," as Elrond makes note of in the Council of Elrond. They are not the wise. And yet without the small goodness of the Hobbits the War of the Ring would not have been won. It is the Hobbits that lead to the Ring's destruction. It is the Hobbits that rouse the Ents and lead to the destruction of Isengard. It is the Hobbits that save Faramir from burning and so preserve the rule of Gondor. It is the Hobbits that are responsible for the destruction of the Witch-King, at least in part. The forces of good don't win the War of the Ring without the Hobbits, without the meek, small, lowly Hobbits, with their gardens and their pubs and their simple life. That's extremely Christian, the idea that someone small and meek can make such a big difference.

The Lord of the Rings is not an explicitly Christian story, but it's the sort of story only a Christian could write.

The New Testament talks more than a little about celibacy, unsurprisingly. Its overall message is that having sex is, essentially, a cope. It's for people who aren't spiritually strong enough to hack it as virgins/celibates. Christ Himself was celibate and a virgin and thus to be this way voluntarily is considered an imitation of Christ.

The Gospels.

What is the best study bible out there for a Catholic? One that is traditional and doesn’t alter interpretations in order to be progressive

What's your favorite Gospel, /lit/?

I know that the typical /lit/ answer is John, but I've really been falling in love with Matthew lately.