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I have read a ton of books about Tolkien. (Literally—if you put them all on a scale, it would be really, really heavy.) And somehow, there’s always more to learn—a slightly different perspective, facts put together innovatively, additional material from archives brought into the conversation. (You can learn all that there is to know about his ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years he can still surprise you at a pinch.) Even when the facts are just the story I’ve heard many times before, I still enjoy it, because I so admire Tolkien’s outlook on so many areas of life and art. (Not every area: for example, I don’t care for the way he disdained C. S. Lewis’s Anglican faith; disagreement is fine and natural, but some of what Tolkien said or wrote about his friend’s Christian tradition felt in appropriate.)
There are numerous books specifically about Tolkien and his Christian faith. I haven’t read many of them, but from skimming a few, I see that they seem to tend toward saying as much about the biographer’s faith than about Tolkien’s—which is fine, but I’m more interested in understanding Tolkien, rather than finding an immediate, direct application to my own life, in a devotional sense. Bradley Birzer’s book J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth fits within the category of books that explore Tolkien’s faith, but it also goes beyond, or deeper. Though not specifically a biography, it’s actually one of the best single-volume books about Tolkien that I’ve read. In clear, well-crafted prose, Birzer draws on primary sources—the usual books by Tolkien and Christopher; the Carpenter biography; Tom Shippey’s books; the Letters; but also archival documents and newspaper and magazine writing from Tolkien’s lifetime through the present—to convey an understanding of Tolkien’s life, beliefs, and what he intended in his work. Because so much of the book is extracts of original sources, rather than Birzer inserting his own opinions, the result is an excellent, concise overview of the author I love. The tone all throughout is just right, and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the man behind Middle-earth.
My only criticism of the book is that Birzer sometimes assumes the reader is familiar with The Silmarillion and other times talks about it as though the reader has never seen it. This is most true in chapter five, “The Nature of Evil,” in which Birzer devotes about five pages to summarizing The Silmarillion. That was the only chapter in the book that felt padded. Otherwise, all other chapters were good overviews of themes related to Tolkien’s life and work: a first biographical chapter, and then “Myth and Sub-creation,” “The Created Order,” “Heroism,” “The Nature of Evil,” “Middle-earth and Modernity,” and a concluding chapter, “The Nature of Grace Proclaimed.” In each chapter, Birzer draws together a wide range of great sources and sets an even, fair tone in his own writing.
There are numerous books specifically about Tolkien and his Christian faith. I haven’t read many of them, but from skimming a few, I see that they seem to tend toward saying as much about the biographer’s faith than about Tolkien’s—which is fine, but I’m more interested in understanding Tolkien, rather than finding an immediate, direct application to my own life, in a devotional sense. Bradley Birzer’s book J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth fits within the category of books that explore Tolkien’s faith, but it also goes beyond, or deeper. Though not specifically a biography, it’s actually one of the best single-volume books about Tolkien that I’ve read. In clear, well-crafted prose, Birzer draws on primary sources—the usual books by Tolkien and Christopher; the Carpenter biography; Tom Shippey’s books; the Letters; but also archival documents and newspaper and magazine writing from Tolkien’s lifetime through the present—to convey an understanding of Tolkien’s life, beliefs, and what he intended in his work. Because so much of the book is extracts of original sources, rather than Birzer inserting his own opinions, the result is an excellent, concise overview of the author I love. The tone all throughout is just right, and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the man behind Middle-earth.
My only criticism of the book is that Birzer sometimes assumes the reader is familiar with The Silmarillion and other times talks about it as though the reader has never seen it. This is most true in chapter five, “The Nature of Evil,” in which Birzer devotes about five pages to summarizing The Silmarillion. That was the only chapter in the book that felt padded. Otherwise, all other chapters were good overviews of themes related to Tolkien’s life and work: a first biographical chapter, and then “Myth and Sub-creation,” “The Created Order,” “Heroism,” “The Nature of Evil,” “Middle-earth and Modernity,” and a concluding chapter, “The Nature of Grace Proclaimed.” In each chapter, Birzer draws together a wide range of great sources and sets an even, fair tone in his own writing.
