2.5

It was a good book, some very good points. Wood has a lovely way with words. It felt at times as if I was reading a devotional. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it did get annoying at times because that's not what I was looking for.

Finished first reading on December 9, 2012.
Finished second reading on December 28, 2014.
Finished third reading on August 27, 2016.

Interesting perspective into Lord of the Rings. I was curious about this topic because it's been described as a Christian read, yet Tolkien stated that it's not allegorical. This book demonstrates how Tolkien's work draws from his faith while staying true to his art/genre of choice, to what fairy stories meant to him. Ralph C. Wood quotes heavily from the LoR books to support his points.

It's hard to pinpoint one's rating in the 5-star rankings. I'd actually give it 3.5 / 5 stars, or 7 / 10, but if I have to choose between 3 or 4 (as is the case), I'll give it 4 / 5.

In this brief but penetrating book, author Ralph C. Wood accomplishes 2 things that make it pleasurable as well as insightful reading.

1) He gives a meaningful, insightful reflection on LOTR from a Christian perspective. As a Christian myself, it is hard to say whether or not this book would be equally valuable to non-Christians, so keep that in mind. But, I suspect it will be a good read for any and all Tolkien fans, no matter their theological bent. What we have here is one man's theological reading of LOTR, or a least a reading of it informed by biblical-theological concepts and paradigms. Professor Wood offers a helpful (and convincing) presentation (not that anyone out there really needs convinced that Tolkien's faith shines through in LOTR---this is just a well done presentation on the "why" and "how" of that fact). It's not as deep or rigorous as Fleming Rutledge's volume on Tolkien, but it's the same "type" of volume, if that's helpful.

2) His reading of LOTR will enhance other's readings of LOTR. His insights coupled with his gift for achieving profound and clear thoughts in little space (as in, he's NOT long-winded or unclear) certainly have me eagerly awaiting my next venture through LOTR. I feel I will see even more in the work thanks to having read Professor Wood's volume.

Blessings

My kingdom for an index!

This book was a treat. It is definitely written for a Christian audience. Wood strays into almost devotional territory at times, drawing liberally from both Tolkien and Scripture, not only to analyze LOTR but also to provide application on the ground level of his readers' lives. I was convicted by his extended meditation on self-righteousness and Pity in LOTR, and invigorated and inspired by his sections on Courage and Temperance.

As far as analysis goes, I think I could write a very decent blog post by blindly opening the book and pointing to one paragraph, then expanding on the point he makes in it. I was surprised, at first, that he often left his amazing points in one-paragraph increments: several of them I would have liked to see expanded. And in the first two chapters especially, I had great trouble following the flow of his arguments, as he seemed to move from one subheading to the next without any clear transition between the two. But since each paragraph was rich, I found I only barely minded.

But since organization was a problem to follow, and since each paragraph is so great, and since each chapter is so long.... I was QUITE DISMAYED that the book has no index! This limits its uses for academic purposes--which I realize may not be his intended audience, since (as I mentioned before) it often skewed devotional. But I bought this book for my own academic research and lend it out to my students when they do research on Tolkien, but I'm afraid that without reading the entire thing, they'll miss some of the best and most useful ideas in it because of this sad lack. Perhaps my heavy and impassioned marginal notes will help them instead? :-)

I loved this book as I do most things about Tolkein's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Highly recommend for Christians who enjoy Tolkien, maybe not for those who are of a different or no faith. Also, if you haven’t read the books, this will not make sense. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one and am glad I have read the books fairly recently as it goes fairly deep into them. Though Tolkien was clear his works are not allegorical like his friend CS Lewis’s, there are clear themes that reflect his faith in his writing and it’s really cool to see.

There is more going on in this book than merely showing the reader that J.R.R. Tolkien's Christianity is present in The Lord of the Rings. I read this book when it first came out in 2005. I think I may have read it one other time along the way. But I have just read it again in preparation for meeting the author, Ralph Wood, at a conference last week. This time I really liked the book.

The Gospel According to Tolkien brings together scripture, Christian history and doctrine and shows those things in The Lord of the Rings. Wood's presentation is not merely academic. He shows the attributes of Christian spiritual development and shows where to find those attributes in both the Bible and in The Lord of the Rings to show examples of what those attributes do for the character in the novel.

The best way to influence a person's thinking or to change behavior is by getting that person to have personal experiences leading to the change. A close second is to get the person to have the experiences vicariously through characters in a compelling story. Wood helps the reader by pointing to desirable Christian virtues and showing where they are in The Lord of the Rings in order to encourage thought within the reader to value and develop those virtues him or herself. Further, by giving concrete examples of the dramatization of Christan virtues within the work of Tolkien he is demonstrating that Tolkien's method for influencing people to a Christian way of thinking was by creating his compelling subcreation of all of his writing, but currently appreciated most in The Lord of the Rings.

Wood's book is very much in the order of Foster's Celebration of Discipline or The Parent You Want to Be because all three present desirable attributes for the reader to develop and discuss how to develop each as part of the reader's way of being. Wood's method is to present each of the Christian virtues and to get the reader to think about and experience its value through dramatic experience from the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

My pastor loaned me this book. I found it had great insights into the crafting of words and writing in general.

Beautiful! Many rich trails one can follow, many dense little passages one can expand on. The ideas are put into careful beautiful phrases, I could feel the love and delight for Tolkien’s work in them. There’s not much of an overall flow or structure, though, I have no big picture of the ideas covered, just a jumble of some of interesting thoughts that stood out for me.
Nevertheless, it was a delightul way to revisit / dwell on various passages and themes from Tolkien’s Legendarium.

I cannot recommend this book enough! I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Ralph Wood at a conference years ago. As I approached him after attending his presentation on Flannery O'Connor, another lady had walked up at the same time. I waited as she introduced herself and shared all her degrees, titles, and accolades. I felt very beneath my approach, but it was too late to walk away. Sensing this, he told the lady it was nice to meet her, and then turned to me and asked my name, following with "and what do you do?" I told him my name and stumbled over the words "I'm just a homeschool mom," to which he replied, to my surprise, that I had the most important job in the world. Hearing this, I had never felt so cheered on. I felt uplifted again as I encountered his thoughts on the hobbits in The Gospel According to Tolkien..

"Just as powerful as the Valar can commit acts of horrific destruction, so can the lowliest hobbit -- like the lowliest and most ordinary person -- accomplish deeds of incomparable importance and worth."

We ended up staying in touch, as he was a professor at Baylor, only an hour away from where I live. He invited our book club to come visit at Baylor, and he gave us a grand tour and even treated us to the staff's lounge and a lunch, where he then shared a lesson on The River, also written by FOC. Not only was he wise, but so amazingly generous and kind. I'll treasure the memory of it all forever.

Reading this book has made me completely alter my plans on having a 'reading challenge' next year. I'm the type who wants to beat my previous goals and add more books every year. This book made me realize it has become more about checking off and consuming the list of books rather than enjoying them fully, slowing down to experience them like the Ents (the tree creatures 'who serve as an example of Tolkien's love for slowness'). Dr. Wood points out, "Repeatedly Tolkien stresses the importance of patience, the willingness to avoid the shortcut and the easy way, recommending instead the slow and arduous path that leads to every excellence. Anything worth doing well is worth doing slowly."

I also loved Dr. Wood's passage regarding The Call to the Life of the Quest, where he says, "Gandalf draws a fundamental distinction between a quest and an adventure. An adventure, he says, is a 'there-and-back-again' affair. One undertakes an adventure as a matter of one's own desires -- often from boredom and a lust for excitement. Once the treasure is found and the adventure is over, one returns essentially unchanged by the experience. An escapist culture lives for adventures. A Quest, by contrast, is never a matter of one's own desire but rather of one's calling. Over and again, Frodo asks why he has been chosen for his dreadful task. His summons not to find a treasure but to lose one."

I cannot wait to start LOTR after having read these delightful insights from such an admirable and genuine scholar.