In my thesis I write that LotR might well be a greater influence on my faith than the Bible. I believed in Middle-earth long before I believed in Christianity, and I never would have converted as an adult had it not been for Tolkien teaching me what it meant to live inside a Great Tale.
Tom Emanuel
My father was raised Catholic in the days before Vatican II. He also read The Lord of the Rings in paperback in 1965 when he was 15 years old. He didn't feel impelled to pass on his birth religion, but he made damned sure that I read LotR as soon as I was old enough to understand it (10).
Tom Emanuel
Interviewing LotR fans, I was deeply moved by how it passes l'ador vador (from generation to generation). Friends lend their dog-eared copies to their friends. Parents read it aloud to their children. It's more than a book: it's a myth that connects us to the people we love, the people who love us.
