Drew Carpenter - "J.R.R. Tolkien" (Outside Reading 1)

As a child I loved to read books, mostly fantasy. Specifically my favorite author was Stephen King, but I loved the "Lord of the Rings," "The Hobbit," and "The Chronicles of Narnia." For my senior speech at my home church, I talked about the connections of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and the Bible. In many interviews, Tolkien stated that he would never make analogies between the two, but encouraged others to come up with ideas. My talk examined parallels between the different characters of the trilogy and characters of the Bible. While doing research for this talk, I gained much more information about my personal faith life as well as how great literature is a valid form of faith teaching.