Tolkien's Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth by Lisa Coutras (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) Hardcover

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christianity is often held in an unsteady tension with the pagan despair of his mythic world. Some critics portray these as incompatible, while Christian analysis tends to oversimplify the presence of religious symbolism. This polarity of opinion testifies to the need for a unifying interpretive lens. The fact that Tolkien saw his own writing as “religious” and “Catholic,” yet was preoccupied with pagan mythology, nature, language, and evil, suggests that these areas were wholly integrated with his Christian  worldview. Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty  examines six structural elements, demonstrating that the author’s Christianity is deeply embedded in the narrative framework of his  creative imagination.