“This treatment of Tolkien’s great story is about God first of all. Then it is about (in no particular order) Providence, history, demonic forces, archangels, bondage and liberation, justice and mercy, failure and restoration, friendship and sacrifice, sanctification and glorification, divine election and human freedom.
The Lord of the Rings is like the Bible in its narrative structure, for the Bible is above all a narrative—a narrative of God’s mighty acts of deliverance being widely misinterpreted. An article in The New York Times at the time when the third movie, The Return of the King, was about to win eleven Academy Awards stated that ‘The triumph of good over evil is the main theme of the story.’ Well, yes and no.
If the ‘main themes’ of this present analysis were to be distilled into a few words, I suppose I would say two things:
1. It is primarily about the unseen Providence of God operating for good through human (and angelic) agents—especially the ‘little’ ones that no one else has noticed.
2. Secondarily it is about the universal propensity of human beings (and angels) to fall into evil unless they are aided by power from that ‘unseen but ever-present Person.’”
– Fleming Rutledge, The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in “The Lord of the Rings” (Eerdmans, 2004).
Tony Reinke 
Man, Tony, this is so ironic. I just purchased a book at my local used bookstore called “Finding God in the Lord of the Rings” by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware. I haven’t gotten to it yet but it’s a pretty short book. (144 pages) Rutledge’s book sounds like a good read as well.
John,
I bought that book, too, but I haven’t read it yet. I hope it’s good. I’m assuming the book Tony’s quoting is good as well.
Tony,
Are you familiar with the Bruner / Ware book?
One of the things I like about LOTR is how well it illustrates Biblical truth – Bilbo was “meant” to find the ring; Boromir wanting to use the ring to fight Sauron; Saruman, with his shimmering robes, only being dangerous when he speaks; Frodo never getting over his wound from the Nazgul until he left Middle-earth; the list goes on and on.
I teach Bible Doctrine to high school students and I find that LOTR (and Pilgrim’s Progress, too) comes in really handy when giving examples from literature of how God deals with us and how we deal with God and the world. Sin and evil are taken seriously, but hope is ever present.
I did write an article on my blog a few weeks ago on this subject, if you’re interested – http://misterrichardson.com/blog1/2008/12/10/do-dictionaries-matter/ .
I’m watching it right now with my son!
Tolkien never meant LOTR as a work that need to be ‘decoded’. He hated allegory (and heartily disliked the Narnia series because of its presence).
There are great themes in the books, but I suspect ‘sanctification and glorification’ only exist in the minds of over-eager Christian readers.
Bart, well said.
And Rick, I hope you and your son read the books as well. The movies leave out so much. For example, Tom Bombadil, and his great part in it – left completely out of the movie version.
Boyd