Tolkien as Divine Stroyteller

Recently I’ve been re-watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended version, of course) which has resurfaced an old idea in my head. Each time that I read or watch some of Tolkien’s saga of Middle Earth, I am struck more and more by the depth of the story. Not only is there great depth of detail… who can help but be impressed that he wrote a number of new languages for his world? But he also instilled an incredible consistency of plot and drama throughout the story. It’s quite funny to watch the screenwriters for the movies try to determine which portions of the book to put on film! Not that I think I could do better! That’s just my point. There are so many stories which Tolkien has woven together, and the stories have so much background, depth, and involvement that it’s near impossible to summarize it in 11 ½ hrs!

In fact, what impresses me most about Tolkien’s story telling is that he didn’t just make up a story. He first created a world. And then out of that world, which has histories and cultures of its own, he pulls one snapshot of a story… the quest to destroy the ring… and spends three books focused on it, all the while letting the reader have glimpses of the surrounding world which he has created. All of the detail, all of the history, and all of the drama set up that one story. It is the central drama to which all others contribute.

I know people debate whether Tolkien meant his story to be “Christian.” I don’t care if he did, and I’m not really interested in that here. I would like to suggest the possibility of using Tolkien (as an author) as an analogy toward thinking about God as a Divine Storyteller.

God has constructed this grand tale. Reading history, one cannot help but be struck by the immensity of it all! In fact, the detail and scope of ancient history almost dwarfs the story of the Messiah. Studying all of the ancient history and languages is a lot of fun (yes… you heard me right, “fun”). Studying all of the back-narratives even helps one to appreciate the main narrative when it comes along, but while the rest of the detail is important, it’s essentially meaningless if one misses the grand, central drama. If one misses Christ’s role, then what is the point of the rest?