Sep 24, 2026 · 34 min · 9 segments
Sacred Men exists to build strong and virtuous men in a weak and degenerate culture. Sacred City Church - https://sacredcitychurch.comOur other podcasts - https://sacredcitychurch.com/podcasts
Justin DeanHost
And while at school, Tolkien formed kind of like a reading group, a theological club, a philosophy club, with three guys who eventually became his best friends.
Now, these four guys would read poetry together and they'd argue about God and they all thought they were going to change the world.
Well, then World War I happened and two of the four were dead by the end of 1916.
One of them wrote Tolkien a letter from the trenches shortly before he was killed.
And he basically said, may you say the things I have tried to say long after I am not there to say them.
The Lord of the Rings is a book written by a man who knew both the beauty and the pain of friendship.
He knew exactly what it cost to have friends and exactly what it cost to lose friends.
And he decided when he was writing The Lord of the Rings that friendship was still worth it anyways.
He sent a fellowship of friends, a small bond of men who would walk into Mordor together.
And here's something I want you to see in the book, because once you see it, you can't unsee it.
I once asked a guy, what's the best book you've ever read on friendship or what taught you the most about friendship? And he answered Lord of the Rings, right? And since that day, he told me that I've read Lord of the Rings with a different worldview, with a different perspective, right? And when you start reading Lord of the Rings through this lens of friendship, it's actually pretty phenomenal and pretty surprising, right? So when you look at the book, there is no
And while at school, Tolkien formed kind of like a reading group, a theological club, a philosophy club, with three guys who eventually became his best friends.
Now, these four guys would read poetry together and they'd argue about God and they all thought they were going to change the world.
Well, then World War I happened and two of the four were dead by the end of 1916.
One of them wrote Tolkien a letter from the trenches shortly before he was killed.
And he basically said, may you say the things I have tried to say long after I am not there to say them.
The Lord of the Rings is a book written by a man who knew both the beauty and the pain of friendship.
He knew exactly what it cost to have friends and exactly what it cost to lose friends.
And he decided when he was writing The Lord of the Rings that friendship was still worth it anyways.
He sent a fellowship of friends, a small bond of men who would walk into Mordor together.
And here's something I want you to see in the book, because once you see it, you can't unsee it.
I once asked a guy, what's the best book you've ever read on friendship or what taught you the most about friendship? And he answered Lord of the Rings, right? And since that day, he told me that I've read Lord of the Rings with a different worldview, with a different perspective, right? And when you start reading Lord of the Rings through this lens of friendship, it's actually pretty phenomenal and pretty surprising, right? So when you look at the book, there is no
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