Few modern works of literature have captured the moral imagination of the West as powerfully as Tolkien’s epic. Though often read as mere fantasy, Tolkien himself famously insisted that his story was ‘a fundamentally religious and Catholic work’. On April 9, 2026, the James Cardinal Gibbons Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America hosted a landmark webinar titled ‘The theological meaning of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings’. The event brought together internationally acclaimed author Joseph Pearce and Dr Jan C Bentz to explore the sacramental vision of JRR Tolkien.

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Dr Jan C Bentz: Joseph, you have written extensively on Tolkien, not just regarding his books, but his life and legacy. Tell us a little bit about your own path to discovering JRR Tolkien.

Joseph Pearce: On a personal level, reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time was significant in my own conversion journey to the Catholic Church. I was aware of the power of the work, though not necessarily the full depth of the Catholicism within it at the time. I knew Tolkien was a Catholic, and I picked up enough to see an orthodox ethos: that the cosmos is clearly ordered and that ‘the good’ is to lay down your life for the beloved.

I later became aware of Tolkien’s letters, where he says – and I’m quoting him word for word here – ‘The Lord of the Rings is, of course, a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.’ That intrigued me to dig deeper. Then, in 1998, a series of polls in the UK named it the greatest work of the 20th century. The response of the secular critics was disdain and scorn. One critic even said, ‘This just shows the folly of teaching people to read.’ I realised these people hadn’t even read the work; they were passing judgement based on arrogance and ignorance. That set me in motion to write my first book, Tolkien: Man and Myth.

Bentz: I want to press you on a point often raised by secular critics. They argue that it is actually Catholics who claim The Lord of the Rings for themselves, even though it isn’t inherently Christian. They point to the dwarves, elves and wizards – none of which sounds very Christian. To the literal-minded, it looks like superstition. Is it really just a work of pagan virtue?

Pearce: I’ll revert first to the words of Tolkien himself. There is no overt mention of Christianity because Tolkien set it thousands of years in the past, before the Incarnation. He didn’t want to include organised religion because, in that timeline, it would have to be pagan – and he didn’t want that. Therefore, the religious element is ‘absorbed into the story and the symbolism’.

You have to understand Catholic theology to see what’s in there. For instance, Tolkien said, ‘I put all of my love for the Blessed Virgin Mary into the characterisation of Galadriel.’ Yes, she is an Elven Queen, but there is something about her which is profoundly Marian.

Bentz: Some parents might ask: ‘Why should I read this to my children? There’s no church, no Christ, no supernatural Redeemer.’ Why did Tolkien leave these direct references out?

Pearce: He didn’t leave them out; they are embedded in the structure. Tolkien was a medievalist. In medieval literature, the theological dimension is often signified by liturgical dates.

Tolkien does the same thing. The Ring is destroyed on March 25. That is the Feast of the Annunciation and also, according to tradition, the historical date of the Crucifixion. The destruction of the ‘One Ring’ – which is synonymous with Original Sin – occurs on the same liturgically significant date that Christ destroyed the power of sin. Furthermore, the Fellowship leaves Rivendell on Christmas Day. Tolkien embeds the entire liturgical year into the journey. This is why Frodo is a Christ figure – as are Gandalf and Aragorn in different ways.

Bentz: There is a sense in which Tolkien doesn’t want to preach. He seems to believe we are designed by God to be storytellers. How does his philosophy of ‘sub-creation’ play into this?

Pearce: Tolkien believed that creativity is a sort of marriage. The gift of creativity is supernatural – it enters the person, and the author either cooperates with it or doesn’t. If the author is animated by pride, that pure gift will be distorted and ‘gollumised’. But someone like Tolkien, who is immersed in the love of wisdom, simply lets the gift happen. Tolkien is an obedient bride to the Bridegroom; what comes out is something beautiful.

Bentz: This relates to the idea of ‘disenchantment’. How does Tolkien’s medieval background influence his desire to ‘re-enchant’ the world?

Pearce: We should distinguish between disenchantment, which is bad, and disillusionment, which is good. To be disenchanted is to no longer hear the music. Tolkien was steeped in Boethius’s De Musica. Boethius spoke of the musica universalis (the music of the cosmos). The word ‘enchantment’ literally means to be ‘in the song’. In Tolkien’s creation myth, God is the composer and the Angels are the orchestra. When Melkor (Satan) tries to sing his own discordant song, he tries to impose his own will. But God tells him that no matter how dark the theme Melkor introduces, God will weave it back into the symphony in ways beyond imagining.

Bentz: I was speaking with Michael Ward recently, and he suggested that because Frodo fails at the Crack of Doom, the destruction of the Ring isn’t actually the climax. How do you respond to the idea of Frodo as a ‘failure’?

Pearce: I respect Michael greatly, but I beg to differ. You have to look at Tolkien’s expertise in Beowulf. Tolkien was preoccupied with the ‘Pelagian heresy’ – the idea that we can get to heaven through the triumph of our own will without grace.

In Beowulf, the hero is the strongest man alive, but his strength is powerless against supernatural evil. He needs the ‘Sword of Grace’ to prevail. Tolkien brings that same scenario to bear. Frodo cannot defeat the power of the Ring through the triumph of his own will; that would be Pelagianism. Ironically, it is Gollum who becomes the ‘unwitting agent of God’s grace’. The destruction of the Ring is what Tolkien calls a ‘eucatastrophe’ – the sudden joyous turn. That is the climactic moment.

Bentz: Is Gollum a picture of a sinner or an embodiment of sin itself?

Pearce: Gollum is a terrifyingly accurate psychological depiction of the soul when it is ‘gollumised’ – completely possessed by the power of sin. Tolkien gives us several ‘Everyman’ figures to show different responses to temptation: (1) Boromir represents us in the Fellowship; he falls but finds redemption through a ‘sacramental’ confession to Aragorn and a final sacrifice. (2) Faramir is the model of virtue who refuses the ‘evil means to a good end’. (3) Gollum is the triumph of homo superbus (the proud man). He is a slave to his ‘Precious’, showing what happens when pride completely triumphs over humility.

Bentz: Tolkien famously said he ‘cordially disliked allegory’. How do we reconcile that with our theological reading?

Pearce: It’s a tricky question. Tolkien despised ‘crude’ allegory – the kind where a character is just a personified abstraction. However, as a philologist, he knew that all language is fundamentally allegorical. Tolkien preferred applicability. He didn’t want a political code, but he did intend for the theology to be ‘subsumed’. The work is grounded in a theological reality that the reader recognises as true, even if they cannot name it.

Bentz: Now, for the most important question of all [laughs]: Peter Jackson’s films. Do you give them a thumbs up? And which battle reigned supreme?

Pearce: I’ll give a ‘cagey’ thumbs up to the The Lord of the Rings films, but an emphatic thumbs down to The Hobbit! As for the battles, it has to be Helm’s Deep. That charge over the brow of the hill at sunrise? It’s pure drama. It’s the triumph of light just when all hope seems lost.

Bentz: Joseph, it’s been a real pleasure and an honour. Thank you for enlightening us with your deep insight into the ‘History Channel’ of Middle-earth.

Pearce: (Laughing) The pleasure was all mine, Jan. God bless you all!

Joseph Pearce’s books, Frodo’s Journey and Bilbo’s Journey, are available online or on Joseph Pearce’s website.

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