Working Bibliography: Religion & Tolkien
for my Atheists, Agnostics, and Animists, Oh, My!: Secular Readings of Tolkien project
Why, yes, here is another bibliography! It dates back to research I did in 2018 for a reception study of how atheist, agnostic, and animist readers interpret Tolkien’s work. I have done several presentations since then which convinced me that I really needed to write it up as a book which is on the list for after I complete the work on the queer Tolkien anthology and the racisms and Tolkien anthology. I’ll also be adding to this bibliography which covers not only essays on religious and Tolkien but scholarship on reception studies, the results of other reception projects, and some of my publications on the reception of Tolkien’s legendarium. I include my bibliographic essays in that category because I think bibliography essays are a type of reception scholarship: that is, how scholars and critics have interpreted Tolkien’s work rather than other groups/categories of readers (or in the case of the projects overseen by Martin Barker, viewers of the films).
As always, if you know of sources on any of the topics I do not list, please feel free to share them!
Updated: December 23, 2023
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Section I: Religions and Tolkien
Agøy, Nils Ivar. "The Christian Tolkien: A Response to Ronald Hutton." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 71-89.
Agøy, Nils Ivar. "Quid Hinieldus Cum Christo? New Perspectives on Tolkien's Theological Dilemma and His Sub-Creation Theory." Mythlore, vol. 21; 33, no. 2 [80], 1996, pp. 31-38.
Austin, Meredith. "Similar Georgian Responses to the Lessening of Traditional Belief Systems in Western Societies from Christopher Dawson and J. R. R. Tolkien." Australian Folklore, vol. 29, 2014, pp. 1-16.
Bałłaban, Karolina. "Light and Darkness in Presenting the Christian Vision of the World in the Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien." Beyond Philology, vol. 6, 2009, pp. 135-164.
Boffetti, Jason. "Catholic Scholar, Catholic Sub-Creator." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 193-204.
Burns, Marjorie. Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth. U of Toronto P, 2005.
Chunodkar, Sonali. “Ilúvatar as a Reader/Listener-God: A Barthesian Interpretation of Sub-creation in Tolkien.” Secondary Believers, Secondary Worlds: Tolkien and Religion in the Twenty-First Century. Tolkien Society 2024 Online Seminar. Abstracts.
Coutras, Lisa. Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth. Palgrave, 2016.
Duriez, Colin. "Where Two or Three Are Gathered: Tolkien and the Inklings." Light beyond All Shadow, eds. Paul E. Kerry and Sandra Miesel, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 153-170.
Echo-Hawk, Roger. Tolkien in Pawneeland: The Secret Sources of Middle-earth. 2013. Second edition: 2016.
Eden, Brad, "Tolkien and Buddhist Influences: Thoughts and Perspectives" 2015. Library Faculty Publications, 2015. 44.
Egan, Thomas M. "Chesterton and Tolkien: The Road to Middle-Earth." Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review, vol. 4, 1983, pp. 45-53.
Emanuel, Tom. "'It is 'about' nothing but itself': Tolkienian Theology Beyond the Domination of the Author." Mythlore, vol. 42, no. 1, article 3, 2024. Link.
Emanuel, Tom (2023) "Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography (2023) by Holly Ordway," Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 18, iss. 1, article 1, 2023. Link.
Filmer, Kath. "An Allegory Unveiled: A Reading of the Lord of the Rings." Mythlore, vol. 13, no. 4, 50, 1987, pp. 19-21.
Flieger, Verlyn. "The Arch and the Keystone," Mythlore, vol. 38, no. 1, article 3, 2019, pp. 7-19.
Flieger, Verlyn. "But What Did He Really Mean?." Tolkien Studies,, vol. 11, 2014, pp. 149-166.
Flieger, Verlyn. Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World. Eerdmans, 1983.
Ford, Judy Ann. "William Caxton's The Golden Legend as a Source for Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings." Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays, ed. Jason Fisher, McFarland, 2011, pp. 133-161.
Garbowski, Christopher. "The Comedy of Enchantment in the Lord of the Rings." Christianity and Literature, vol. 60, no. 2, 2011, pp. 273-286.
Glyer, Mike. "Tolkien An Unexpected Sainthood." File 770, 25 Oct. 2017.
Hartt, Walter F. "Godly Influences; the Theology of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis." Studies in the Literary Imagination, vol. 14, no. 2, 1981, pp. 21-29.
Hartley, Gregory. "A Wind from the West: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Tolkien's Middle-Earth." Christianity and Literature, vol. 62, no. 1, 2012, pp. 95-120.
Holmes, John R. "'Like Heathen Kings': Religion as Palimpsest in Tolkien's Fiction." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 119-144.
Hunt, Dena. "Christian Dimensions in Lord of the Rings." Amon Hen, vol. 202, Nov. 2006, pp. 16-18.
Hutton, Ronald. "Can We Still Have a Pagan Tolkien?: A Reply to Nils Ivar Agøy." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 90-105.
Johnston, Susan. "Harry Potter, Eucatastrophe, and Christian Hope." Logos, vol. 14, no. 1, 2011, pp. 66-90.
Kerry, Paul E. (ed. and introduction). The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings. Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011.
Kerry, Paul E. "Tracking Catholic Influence in the Lord of the Rings." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 234-245.
Lawhead, Stephen R. "J. R. R. Tolkien: Master of Middle Earth." Reality and the Vision, Philip Yancey, Word, 1990, pp. 28-38.
Lefler, Nathan S. "Tolkien's Sub-Creation and Secondary Worlds: Implications for a Robust Moral Psychology." Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 4, no. 2, 2017.
Madsen, Catherine. "Eru Erased: The Minimalist Cosmology of the Lord of the Rings." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 152-169.
Monks, Caroline. "Christianity and Kingship in Tolkien and Lewis." Mallorn, vol. 19, Dec. 1982.
Mooney, Chris. "The Ring and the Cross: How J. R. R. Tolkien Became a Christian Writer." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 170-174.
Morillo, Stephen. "The Entwives: Investigating the Spiritual Core of the Lord of the Rings." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 106-118.
Ordway, Holly. Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography. Word on Fire Academic, 2023.
Pearce, Joseph. "The Lord of the Rings and the Catholic Understanding of Community." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 224-233.
Rateliff, John D. "'That Seems to Me Fatal': Pagan and Christian in the Fall of Arthur." Tolkien Studies,, vol. 13, 2016, pp. 45-70.
Raza, Sultana. "Projecting Indian Myths, Culture and History onto Tolkien's Worlds," Tolkien Society Summer 2021 Seminar, "Tolkien and Diversity, 27 July, 2021.
Reid, Robin Anne. "A Queer Atheist Feminist Autist Responds to Donald Williams's ‘Keystone or Cornerstone? A Rejoinder to Verlyn Flieger on the Alleged “Conflicting Sides” of Tolkien's Singular Self," Mythlore, vol. 40, no. 2, article 14. Link.
Ricciardi, Marc. "The Mightiest Mariner of Song: Christocentrism in Tolkien's Miltonic Epic." The Redemptive Act: Sin and Atonement in Literature, eds. Marc Ricciardi and Joe Meyer, St. Joseph's, 2006, pp. 23-36.
Secondary Believers, Secondary Worlds: Tolkien and Religion in the Twenty-First Century. Tolkien Society 2024 Online Seminar. Abstracts.
Simonson, Martin. "Tolkien's Triple Balance: A Redemptive Model of Heroism for the Twentieth Century." Sub-Creating Middle-Earth: Constructions of Authorship and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Judith Klinger and Stephanie Luther, Walking Tree, 2012, pp. 21-42. Cormarë Series: 27.
Sternberg, Martin. "Smith of Wootton Major Considered as a Religious Text." Tolkien's Shorter Works: Essays of the Jena Conference 2007, Margaret Hiley and Frank Weinreich, Walking Tree, 2008, pp. 293-323. Cormarë Series: 17.
Testi, Claudio Antonio, Tom Shippey, and Verlyn Flieger. Pagan Saints in Middle-Earth. Walking Tree, 2018. Cormarë Series: 38.
Testi, Claudio A. "Tolkien's Work: Is It Christian or Pagan? A Proposal for a 'Synthetic' Approach." Tolkien Studies,, vol. 10, 2013, pp. 1-47.
Tomko, Michael. "'An Age Comes On': J. R. R. Tolkien and the English Catholic Sense of History." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 205-223.
Turner, Allan. "Translation and Criticism: The Stylistic Mirror." Yearbook of English Studies, vol. 36, no. 1, 2006, pp. 168-76.
Vogt-William, Christine. "Tolkien's Green Man: The Racialised Cultural Other within and Green Spaces in the Lord of the Rings." Binding Them All: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on J. R. R. Tolkien and His Works, Monika Kirner-Ludwig, et al., Walking Tree, 2017, pp. 305-339. Cormarë Series: 37.
Williams, Donald. "The Keystone or the Cornerstone?: A Rejoinder to Verlyn Flieger on the Alleged 'Conflicting Sides' of Tolkien's Singular Self." Mythlore, vol. 40, no. 1, article 13. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol40/iss1/13.
Wood, Ralph C. "Confronting the World's Weirdness: J. R. R. Tolkien's the Children of Húrin." The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings, ed. Paul E. Kerry, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011, pp. 145-151.
Wood, Ralph C. "Following the Many Roads of Recent Tolkien Scholarship." Christianity and Literature, vol. 54, no. 4, 2005, pp. 587-608.
Wood, Ralph C. The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth. Westminster John Knox P, 2003.
Wood, Ralph C. "Tolkien and Postmodernism." Tolkien Among the Moderns, ed. Ralph C. Wood. U of Notre Dame P, 2016, pp. 247-277.
Section II: Reception & Reader Response
Baker, Dallas John, "Writing Back to Tolkien: Gender, Sexuality, and Race in High Fantasy." Recovering History Through Fact and Fiction: Forgotten Lives, eds. Dallas John Baker, Donna Lee Brien, and Nike Sulway, eds., Cambridge Scholars' Publishing, 2017, pp. 123-43.
Barker, Martin. "On Being a 1960s Tolkien Reader." From Hobbits to Hollywood: Essays on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, Ernest Mathijs and Murray Pomerance, eds., Rodopi, 2006, pp. 81-99. Contemporary Cinema 3.
Barker, Martin. "I Have Seen the Future and It Is Not Here Yet. . .; or, On Being Ambitious for Audience Research." The Communication Review, vol. 9, no. 2, 2006, pp. 123-141, DOI: 10.1080/10714420600663310.
Drout, Michael D. C. "Reflections on Thirty Years of Reading The Silmarillion." The Silmarillion Thirty Years On, Allan Turner, ed., Walking Tree, 2007, pp. 33-57.
Drout, Michael D. C. and Hilary Wynne. "Tom Shippey's J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and a Look Back at Tolkien Criticism since 1982." Envoi, vol. 9, no. 2, 2000, pp. 135-165.
Fliss, William. "The FellowsHub Journey Continues: An Adventure in Copyright," Jan. 24, 2019, https://medium.com/dslab/the-fellowshub-journey-continues-an-adventure-in-copyright-5d659f117998.
Lord of the Rings Project Database. Aberystwyth University. 25 Jun 2008.
S. Gary Hunnewell Collection, 1960-. Special Collections, Marquette.
Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection. Marquette University.
"Works in TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms." The Archive of Our Own. March 15, 2023, 88,000 works listed as of this date.
The World Hobbit Project Database. Aberystwyth University. 18 Oct. 2017.
Section III: My Bibliographic and Reception Scholarship
Reid, Robin Anne. "The History of Scholarship on Female Characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium; A Feminist Bibliography." Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien, Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie Donovan, eds., Mythopoeic, 2015, pp. 13-40.
Reid, Robin Anne. "On the Shoulders of Gi(E)nts: The Joys of Bibliographic Scholarship and Fanzines in Tolkien Studies," Mythlore, vol. 37, no. 2, article 3, 2019, pp. 23-38.
Reid, Robin Anne. "Queer Atheists, Agnostics, and Animists, Oh, My!" Tolkien Society Summer 2021 Seminar, "Tolkien and Diversity," 27 July, 2021. .
Reid, Robin Anne. "A Queer Atheist Feminist Autist Responds to Donald Williams's "Keystone or Cornerstone? A Rejoinder to Verlyn Flieger on the Alleged 'Conflicting Sides' of Tolkien's Singular Self"," Note, Mythlore, 2022, vol. 40, no. 2, article 14, pp. 196-220.
Reid, Robin Anne. "Race in Tolkien Studies: A Bibliographic Essay." Tolkien and Alterity, eds. Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor, Palgrave, 2017, pp. 33-74.
Reid, Robin Anne. "Tolkien Studies Area: The Tenth Anniversary!" Tolkien on the Web. 11 June 2021.
Reid, Robin Anne. "Women & Tolkien: Amazons, Valkyries, Feminists, and Slashers," Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 6, iss.1, article 3, 2018.