Fun and interesting.

Insight that went beyond my thoughts

Christian and non-Christian alike can gain insight into Tolkien’s writing from this work. The former, like myself (Presbyterian flavor) can be see what we missed in the first 20 or so readings; the latter can become aware of how they are blinded by their time and culture.

It's been a few years since I read this book, and so I won't risk the sort of complete review the book deserves.

I used to hang out frequently in various online Tolkien fan communities to share my love of Tolkien's works with other geek. One thing that always struck me about the conversations which developed in this places was how much fuller, deeper, and well reasoned the arguments were than those I encountered in published works by literary critics and scholars. The average literary critic reading Tolkien is I think, by virtue of his training, left poorly prepared to deal with Tolkien's work, and employs a method of analysis which is wholly alien to the author's nature and technique. For example, Tolkien openly hated overt allegory and metaphor, and eshewed as much as he could employing anything like one to one metaphors between the elements of his text and some real world figure or event. Yet, most scholars persist in seeing simplistic metaphors in his story and build up the most elaborate towers of balderdash about what the books are about despite the fact that such arguments fall apart under even the most cursory scrutiny.

Of all of Tolkien's published critics, I think Wood by far comes the closest to 'getting it' and actually getting at the depths of the text. He's certainly the only one who I think would usefully contribute to a discussion between actual fans of the sort that read the book annually, or continually, or to the point of having lost count of the number of times they've read it. (You know who you are.) Maybe that is because Wood is a fan himself.

A great look at how fantasy can explore a deep subject matter such as faith while remaining immensely entertaining.

A very rich and thorough reading of LOTR. Ralph Wood works to show the many connections between Scripture and the Lord of the Rings in order to present a compelling picture of Tolkien's narrative "in whose depths the gospel resounds."

Surprisingly insightful. I wasn't expecting much more than one person's take of Tolkien's Christian allegory. What I got was a collection of Tolkien's own letters and statements, clarifying his perspective on how his Catholicism influenced his work.

Amazing and incredibly insightful, especially for those of us who are fans and know and live the great story better (thanks, Dad!). Even if you're not a Lord of the Rings fan or aficionado, you can still appreciate the parallels between Tolkien's work and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, a former atheist converted to Christianity by Tolkien himself, merely scratch the surface. Just as Tolkien spent so much time creating a high-fantasy (detailed) world with its own functioning languages and cultures, he also spent a lot of effort putting in unmistakable Christian themes.

Ralph Wood does an excellent job of analyzing these themes with examples from Tolkien's books (not just the standard LOTR quad) and scripture. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a church whose doctrine was restored to the Earth after the apostasy that happened after the Bible ended and lasted until the mid-1800s. Because of that, our understanding of Christianity differs slightly, but essentially, from many mainstream Christian faiths, but Wood has done an excellent job of staying to the truth of Christ's gospel in his study of Tolkien's books. I have a copy and would absolutely recommend this.

It was interesting, but full of a lot more speculation than quotes from Tolkien. Not as reverent or honoring as "Tokien's Ordinary Virtues" - but longer and a little more like a college lecture.

Such a lovely book making connections between Tolkien's wonderful stories and the hope and truth of the Gospel. I am not familiar enough with The Silmarillion to appreciate the first section, "The Great Symphony of the Creation", but this certainly whetted my appetite to read it again. This book makes me grateful for those whose work points us to God.

Although I disagree with the entire fundamentals of this book, it was quite well written and delivered beautiful insights on Tolkien's works, namely Lord of the Rings.

I found this line strangely out of place and quite possibly racist/anti-Semitic, however:
"The average Jew of Jesus' day was perhaps little if any larger than Tolkien's hobbits..." (P. 164).

Wood takes the Christian metanarrative: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and consummation and shows how Tolkien’s work speaks to that narrative. A good read that will enhance your understanding of Middle Earth and its Gospel roots.

Rather than try to squeeze the gospel into a Middle-Earth mold, Wood instead exposes the worldview in which Tolkien wrote. This small work stokes both a love for Fantasy and a love for the Gospel.