tolkienian christianity

So, as a groomsman in my friend Ken's wedding, I was given a gift of a couple books. To me this was a great thing, seeing as I seem to be following in the footsteps of my friend Paul in devouring books lately. One of the books I received was The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-Earth by Ralph C. Woods. While almost none of the storyline for Lord of the Rings lines up perfectly with Christianity, many facets exist within its pages that scream the Christian life. In all honesty, one only needs to look deeper at the dynamics of the Fellowship to see some of the most vibrant examples of true Christian life. While I would recommend it to anyone who likes Lord of the Rings, I would caution that if you've only seen the movies then you will be quite lost while reading this book since it deals with the actual Tolkien books (Lord of the Rings trilogy and other related works, i.e. Silmarillion, History of Middle-Earth, etc.). I could go on in my overview and semi-review of the book, but to be honest I am not quite finished and I'd rather not get much further into the contents since I didn't write the book... but I will leave this for a vague, open-ended summary:

Doesn't a friendship so deep that they would risk their lives for each other, not just for the benefit of the greater good that must be accomplished but also for their deep respect and love for one another, sound like quite the model of a kingdom attitude?