It is not an exaggeration to state that, in the long shadows of the twentieth century, a remarkable fellowship of British Medievalists known as the Inklings Christianized the Western literary canon. In their award-winning book, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams (2015), Philip and Carol Zaleski conclude that a small group of romantics and fantasists sought to revitalize literature and faith in the twentieth century’s darkest years. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia narratives and Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings offered Christian fairytales as a conduit for re-enchanting the modern world. Arguably, the Inklings revitalized the ancient genre of the Quest for the Holy Grail that fascinates readers across centuries with its great themes of voyages, challenges, conquest, self-conquest, and the ultimate triumph of good over evil.
The question arises whether Christian fairytales may redeem the postmodern temper steeped in a cultural morass of relativism, subjectivism, and nihilism, where many are seduced by a secular marketplace offering high-tech substitutes for self-realization. Can Lewis’ and Tolkien’s moral imagination inspire a renewed optimism in the human capacities of reason, faith, love, and compassion? In sum, can Christian fairytales restore a fractured postmodern self by envisioning a more felicitous human nature in pursuit of the classical virtues of beauty, truth, and goodness, nurturing families and communities, and aspiring to transcendence?