I'll be off for a few days, so no online access. I hope you all have a good weekend. My guinea pigs wish all of you a good "wheeeeekend"!

Some great writers:

George MacDonald, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, DH Lawrence: I understand them all to have been Christian writers. MacDonald preceded the others. Lewis considered MacDonald to be his "master" as far as literature/writing. His imagination was "baptised", to use Lewis' words, when he read MacDonald's work. I had a similar experience when I read "Lilith". It's fantastic!! I know that MacDonald, Lewis and Tolkien did not hit the reader over the head, as the saying goes, with their Christian content.

Any Lord of the Rings (LOTR) fans out there? Or maybe just knowledgeable about it? It's kind of like Star Trek: even if you're not a fan, it has so permeated our culture that many non-fans know things!!! LOL. I must admit that without the recent movies, I wouldn't have made it through the book. It's quite dense in detail.

I fell for Faramir when I read LOTR. Yeah, he's a fantasy character, but that's life. He didn't want to even be near the one ring when Frodo crossed his path. He was aware enough of its power and ability to corrupt, likely because of Gandalf's tutelage. Unfortunately, the movie changed it because they wanted him to be more realistic -- more human. But his family history included royalty, which in my understanding of Tolkien's world, had the potential to give him true nobility of character, much like Aragorn. If any readers know differently, let me know. I'd love to hear!

It's nearly impossible not to see the Christian influence on author JRR Tolkien, which in turn is in the book. I've known at least one person who sadly didn't want to see it, even though she saw all kinds of other things in it. More obvious Christian influence is in The Silmarillion. The book chronicles the events preceding LOTR.

My college major was English, which required the study of literature. It's sad that there are so many who cannot be objective about literature. I had instructors and fellow English majors who, like the woman I mentioned above, won't acknowledge obvious Christian content. I've also known people who want to impose Christian interpretations on literature when it's unwarranted.

Just a note: work that contains Christian references isn't always authored by a Christian. Writers choose what they choose for various reasons.

Here's a little fun I found on glitter-graphics.com when I searched for Lord of the Rings:

glitter-graphics.com