Teaching, learning, and biblical symbolism: The environmentalisms of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis

Williams, Martha E. L. (2025) Teaching, learning, and biblical symbolism: The environmentalisms of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Masters thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

In this thesis I offer a unique and original reading of environmentalism in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series. I explore how the narrative and symbolic use of teaching and learning throughout these texts results in the expression of three distinct environmentalisms: wilderness, stewardship, and the sentience and rights of non-human creatures. Tolkien and Lewis both portray protagonists in need of extensive learning about the non-human aspects of their worlds, and their relationships to them. Learning occurs both through experience (of narrative events, and direct contact with the land) and other characters who assume the role of teacher. I further highlight that Tolkien and Lewis’ personal Christian faiths also played a deeply influential role in the environmentalism present in their writing. To achieve this, I draw on arguments made by Wendell Berry in his essays ‘The Gift of Good Land’ and ‘Christianity and the Survival of Creation’ (found in The Gift of Good Land, and Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community respectively) and Richard Bauckham in Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Community of Creation. Previous literary scholarship, influenced by the legacy of Lynn White Jr., has portrayed Christianity as inherently anthropocentric, and thus incompatible with Tolkien and Lewis’ environmentalism. These authors’ unique reflection and use of biblical symbolism in an environmental capacity, means their work does not conform to this. Pairing Tolkien and Lewis highlights that their expression of distinct environmentalisms, through the narrative use of teaching and learning, and biblical symbolism, was influenced by the authors’ environmentally positive understanding of their faith.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing
Depositing User:	Jennifer Whitaker
Date Deposited:	01 May 2026 14:56
Last Modified:	01 May 2026 14:56
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102883
DOI:

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