Volume 15, Issue 2, June 2002

This article responds to the topical interest in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, now appearing in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy. It presents and comments on Tolkien’s “theology” of fairy-stories as it is to be found in a reflective essay he produced in the course of his writing the work concerned. After examining the various features of artistic fantasy, we reflect on the theological meaning of art, its relationship to the Gospel story, and its place in theological method and cultural communication.