“Luck” and Latent Christianity in Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’

“You don’t really suppose, do you,” asks Gandalf to Bilbo on the last page of The Hobbit, “that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?”

The wizard continues, “You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”

To which Bilbo replies with happiness and humility, “Thank goodness!”

In this brief three-minute video, professor and author Devin Brown discusses the latent Christianity in J.R.R Tolkien’s Hobbit and how this major theme of “luck” points beyond mere coincidence to an invisible Hand behind the entirety of the story.