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  • The Messiah Comes to Middle Earth: Images of Christ’s Threefold Office in the Lord of the Rings by Philip Ryken
  • Blake I. Campbell
The Messiah Comes to Middle Earth: Images of Christ’s Threefold Office in the Lord of the Rings. By Philip Ryken. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017. ISBN 978-0-8308-5372-4. Pp. xiii +150. $16.00.

J. R. R. Tolkien has long been the literary exemplar on the relationship between Christianity and literature. Philip Ryken, in his newest book The Messiah Comes to Middle Earth: Images of Christ’s Threefold Office in the Lord of the Rings, engages in an innovative literary analysis of the theological and christological undertones of Tolkien’s LOTR. Originally offered as a series of three lectures for the 2015–16 Hansen Lectureship Series at Wheaton College’s Marion E. Wade Center, Ryken, in the course of three chapters, links Christianity’s doctrine of the threefold office of Christ (Prophet, Priest, King) to three protagonists within the LOTR (Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn, respectively). Each chapter follows a similar pattern: a focus on a specific christological office, a brief comment on its historical-theological development within the Protestant Reformation, discussion of the LOTR protagonist who mirrors that office, notation of Tolkien’s concerns about precisely this kind of reading, comparison of the office in question to the role of college president, and a concluding section of application.

In chapter 1, Ryken identifies Gandalf as illustrative of the first office of Christ, the prophetic. In explaining Gandalf’s fulfillment of the prophetic office of Christ, Ryken emphasizes that Gandalf rarely uses magic, and when he does, it is often described vaguely and briefly. This, Ryken suggests, underscores Gandalf’s [End Page 723] prophetic influence being displayed not in divine or supernatural acts of power, but in his words. Consequently, Gandalf’s true power is setting the truth in the present time, much like the Old Testament prophets, and not unlike Jesus’ own prophetic teaching found in the Gospels.

Additionally, Gandalf and the biblical prophets (including Christ) suffered in their prophetic office. Ryken begins chapter 1 by setting the memorable scene from Tolkien’s first book of the LOTR series, in which Gandalf battles the demon-like Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm in Moria. Archetypally, Gandalf’s action resembles Christ’s defeat of Satan typified in the Balrog, while simultaneously sacrificing his own life to save his friend’s life. Consequently, Christ will fulfill a massive compilation of Old Testament prophecy, thereby defeating Satan (typified in Tolkien’s Balrog) by dying, and being resurrected (i.e., the resurrection of “Gandalf the White”).

In chapter 2, Ryken introduces us to the priestly office of Christ, which is best illustrated in the protagonists of Samwise Gamgee (primarily) and Frodo Baggins. Perhaps most notably, Tolkien’s Hobbits display the priestly imagery of bearing a burden (cf. Isaiah 53), in Frodo and Sam’s “bearing the burden of the One Ring of Power” (57). Additionally, the closer Frodo and Sam journey to Mordor the more difficult this burden becomes, conveying similar connotations to Christ’s journey to Calvary, in which there is an ever-increasing burden and difficulty (cf. Matt. 26:39). In the case of Frodo and Sam, they carry the burden of the Ring no matter what the personal cost, relating to Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. This inherently priestly (and christological) action is symbolized in the act of Frodo and Sam bearing the Ring of power away from the people of the Shire, Rivendell, Rohan, and Gondor, and bringing it to the wilderness of Mordor and Mount Doom to destroy it.

Priestly imagery is also exhibited in Sam’s bearing of Frodo upon his back when the two climb Mount Doom to destroy the ring. Ryken calls this symbolic action on behalf of Sam a “ministry of presence,” which is emblematic to the priestly office. Finally, priestly imagery is perhaps most clearly displayed in Frodo and Sam’s willingness to sacrifice their lives for their friends. According to Ryken, “Frodo is prepared to lay down his life for his friends” (62); likewise, Christ sacrificed himself for the disciples (cf. John...

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