I'm sure my readers (you know who you are!) have noticed that a few decorative photos have made their way back onto the blog. I thought it could do with a little visual livening up! (But just a little!)

During a recent visit to our local Border's (which happens to be, oddly enough, the best "Christian" bookstore in our area), I noticed a whole raft of books (well, perhaps a small dingy of them) on the Christian aspects of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now that I'm reading these books again (and for the first time as a Christian), the issue is on my mind. It's a subject worth consideration, but the matter is not in my opinion nearly as clear-cut and obvious as with, for example, the Narnia series by Tolkien's friend Lewis, which is much closer to pure allegory. In any case, an interesting review of one of those books I saw at Border's (The Gospel According to Tolkien, by Ralph C. Wood) can be found over at First Things.

By the way, the review includes this quote from Tolkien himself: "I don’t feel under any obligation to make my story fit with formalized Christian theology, though I actually intended it to be consonant with Christian thought and belief." And that, for what it's worth, is "consonant" with my own impression of the books now.