The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
by Stratford Caldecott
Published/Edition: 2012, Crossroad Publishing Company
Genre: Non-Fiction / Religion / Literature / Fantasy / Secondary Source
(For the short version of my review, see the bottom.)
I consider The Power of the Ring a great secondary source to commentary and analysis on Tolkien's works from a strongly Catholic perspective, but the biggest issue I have with this book is the misleading phrase in the title: "The Spiritual Vision." Now, this was probably not the fault of Caldecott but more likely an attempt by the publisher to sell the book to a wider audience.
The word "spiritual" is often tacked onto Christian literature, but the word also applies to other elements (from Buddhism to Cherokee philosophy), and so I came into the pages expecting to get a good coverage of the spiritual backgrounds and origins that went into Tolkien's work, including both the Christian and the pagan.
