Wednesday, September 2, 2026

It is the 2nd of September 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Many listeners know that not only am I gearing up to lead a Reformation trip to Germany and Switzerland in a few weeks (for part of that time, you’ll be in the very capable hands of my colleague and friend Sam Leanza Ortiz) but that starting this Spring I will be leading yearly trips through England and Scotland.

One of the highlights of that trip is a jaunt around Oxford and the sites that both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien lived and wrote. Regarding the inclusion of Tolkien, I had one older Catholic woman become a little perturbed that “we Protestants” were coopting the Catholic Tolkien. Of course, if the only allowed history for the church was delineated by denomination… well, this show would have run out of things to say years ago.

Of course, there are those who have similarly downplayed Tolkien’s own faith. “Oh yes, C.S. Lewis was something of a fanatical Christian as opposed to the more cosmopolitan Tolkien” was not an uncommon take. So today, on the anniversary of his death on this day in 1973, let’s look at the life of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien with a special note on the centrality of his faith.

John was born in 1892 in Bloemfontein, then part of the Orange Free State (now South Africa), to Arthur and Mabel. When he was three, he accompanied his mother and younger brother to England, but his father died back home, and the three chose to stay. They settled in Sarehole near Birmingham (a landscape that would inspire the famous Shire).

In 1900, his mother joined the Catholic Church- she was disowned by her own father, and the family fell into even worse financial straits. Nevertheless, Mabel was able to enroll her sons at the Birmingham Oratory (the school set up by Cardinal John Henry Newman). Mabel would soon die at only 34, and the boys were put under the care of Father Francis Morgan. Father Morgan would intervene in John’s life when he fell for Edith Britt, 3 years his senior and an Anglican. Morgan would forbid them to date, but later she would join the Catholic Church and the two were married.

They were married for just a few months in 1916 when John was sent to the Somme during World War I. The deaths of his friends and the landscape of war and death would inspire him, while recovering from trench fever, to begin composing the stories that would become the foundation of Middle-earth.

He would go on to work for the Oxford English Dictionary and at the University of Leeds before going to Oxford, where he would spend the rest of his career. It is there that he met Lewis- then an atheist. When Lewis converted, he claimed that Tolkien was an “immediate cause” of his own conversion and wrote, “Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?”

While Tolkien was disappointed that Lewis didn’t join the Roman Church, his own devotions never wavered. He regularly attended Mass, and he suggested to one of his sons that taking the sacrament “7 times a week” was preferable to “seven times at intervals”. When Vatican II permitted worship in the Vernacular with the Novus Ordo, we are told by Tolkien's grandchildren that he would dissent by responding to the English Mass in Latin.

Perhaps some of the incredulity for Tolkien’s deep faith is that he wasn’t trying to make allegory in the way that his friend, Lewis did in the Narnia books. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are fundamentally Christian in their outlook, and parallels to the Gospels can be made. Tolkien insisted that it was essentially Christian to make up such stories. He believed that in making these “sub creations” he was himself exercising the image of God who is the ultimate creator. He would continue to produce works taking place in Middle-earth after his retirement in 1959. His son Christopher would edit his father's posthumous material after Tolkien's death on this, the 2nd of September in 1973. Born in 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was 81 years old.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary, Matthew 12, and a bit of a riddle:

22 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to Jesus, and He healed him so that the man who was unable to speak talked and could see. 23 And all the crowds were amazed and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

25 And knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan is casting out Satan, he has become divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if by Beelzebul I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. 28 But if I cast out the demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or, how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first ties up the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 2nd of September 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a noted fan of second breakfasts and drinks that come in pints… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who just learned that his favorite owner in sports just bought his favorite baseball team and might be Post-Mil now.. it keeps getting better… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.