Tolkien and the Analogy of the Faith

Pope Benedict XVI often uses the phrase "the analogy of the faith". In normal usage, analogy is inferring information about one thing or idea and correlating it to another thing or idea to illustrate their agreement and similarity. It is a central faculty of human cognition and is used in almost everything we do, taking many different forms and applications. But how is Pope Benedict using it here?

Christians, and their Jewish predecessors, have always understood that Truth cannot contradict itself. To be a full and complete truth, it must completely agree and have perfect consistency, explaining everything in existence. As such, Truth must be Divine, making it one aspect of God. Christ called Himself "the way, the Truth and the life". The faith which Christians have received from God by His personal revelation and natural law is the affirmation of this Truth by and in people. By revealing Himself to us as the answer and explanation of all the universe, including our very souls, we are called by Him to affirm and agree with that Truth, to live by it even if it is not always immediately obvious to us. This assent, acquiescence and obedience to the call of Truth is faith.

Pope Benedict's use of the term "analogy" does not truly deviate from its vernacular usage; he simply applies it to Truth as Christians know and follow it, and as all can see it in nature. Because the Truth is perfectly consistent and internally agrees with itself, the revelation which God has given to humanity in Tradition and nature are analogous to this Truth. Though they're separate from God, they reflect with perfect accuracy God's own Truth. By examining and experiencing revelation and life itself, we are able to infer the truths of God, learning the attributes, properties and philosophical meaning of things. From this wisdom, we can see its consistency and yet also its blatant lacking, which through God's personal revelation is shown to be fulfilled in Christ. This is the analogy of faith.

Another deeply faithful Catholic, though slightly older than the Pope, who frequently used the term analogy was the author and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien. Though in theory a part of the same cognitive process as analogy, Tolkien deplored the use of allegory in literature. To him, allegory is creating an entirely separate reality from this one, with no apparent connection to this one, but having no meaning in and of itself. Everything in this other, allegorical world simply represents things here, with only one possible meaning for everything in that other world and no intrinsic meaning otherwise. Tolkien believed this to limit the reader's experience, force the author's meaning on the reader, and betray the mythic literary method of having the other, supernatural, holy world of Heaven reflect into this world and be glimpsed in it through what he called "faerie". For Tolkien, mythic literature should satisfy our longing for Heaven and God's fulfillment of the world and our deepest spiritual desires, not alienate this world from its Creator.

Tolkien utilized two different analogical styles in his works: direct analogy and typology. Rather than having a separate allegorical world, Tolkien placed his literary world within the Christian cosmology, only from the perspective of his fictional characters and races. He created a mythology for his world parallel to the Christian cosmology, only from the perspective of Elves, described in his book The Silmarillion. Illuvatar, the Creator, made all the heavenly beings, the world and everything in it. Soon, one of these heavenly beings, called Valar, became rebellious and prideful, falling from grace and turning to evil, taking many Valar and their lessar counterparts, Maiar, with him. They conflicted with the work of the good beings, who continued actualizing Illuvatar's will. Eventually, some of the evil and good beings took physical form in the world to help or hurt Illuvatar's sentient species.

This is not simply a tale. When asked what God is Illuvatar, Tolkien replied, the God of Christianity. He frequently called his work a deeply Catholic endeavor, and said that it inspired everything he did in it. (See Tolkien's Letters for more information, compiled by Humphrey Carpenter and edited by Christopher Tolkien.) The Valar as archangels, Maiar angels; Morgoth, the original fallen Valar, is Satan; and the other fallen beings are demons, including Sauron. Later, the Istari, who are Maiar, are sent in physical form to unite and aid humanity against Sauron. An allegory would differ. Morgoth would not actually be Satan - he would represent Satan. But in Tolkien's world, there is no representation. Morgoth is Satan, and Illuvatar is God.

Tolkien also used typology. In the Bible, as explained by St. Paul, the Old Testament is full of types - images, characters and events which prefigure things in the New Testament, especially Christ. Noah's Ark prefigures Mary, the Church, etc.; the flood prefigures baptism, Christ's saving blood, etc. Everything means something, often many things at once. For Tolkien, whose stories are historical in time, many things in his world are types of Christian realities to come. This is a bit less obvious than the direct analogy, but no more real. For example, several characters in The Lord of the Rings are types of Christ. Frodo is a type of His priestly office; Aragon a type of his royal office; Gandalf a type of his prophetic office; etc. Lembas bread is a type of the Eucharist, as well as the Old Testament manna. While everything is a type of multiple things in Christianity, they are all types of something from it. Tolkien did this intentionally and considered it an integral part of mythopoeia, his own literary style.

Tolkien helped guide me to Catholicism, showing me through analogy the spirituality and Truth of Catholicism. I consider him one of the greatest and saintliest Catholics of all time, despite his recognition being primarily as an author and scholar. I pray for his intercession, and for the possibility of his Beatification by the Church, as well as for his continued assistance to converts coming home to God.