In search of Aquinas in Middle-earth: pedagogical potentials for Thomistic virtue ethics through The Lord of the Rings

This article addresses a persistent pedagogical problem in theological and religious education: contemporary students often experience Thomistic virtue ethics as conceptually dense and culturally remote. It proposes that Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings can function as a pedagogically structured medium through which Aquinas’ moral anthropology becomes experientially intelligible. Using a comparative narrative – ethical method, the study conducts close readings of selected narrative units, examining their internal moral logic before correlating these patterns analogically with Aquinas’ account of virtue as stable dispositions ordered towards the human telos. Tolkien’s idea of subcreation provides the theoretical warrant for reading fantasy as formative rather than allegorical. Findings show that virtues emerge as structurally salient patterns across Middle-earth – prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, and charity – revealing how moral ambiguity, frailty, community, and providence shape the pursuit of the good. Pedagogically, the paper advances a formation-oriented model by proposing narrative-ethical mapping, workshop-style discussions, role-play and dialogical simulations, comparative reflections, and reflective writing as integrated strategies that move students from narrative immersion to ethical discernment and personal appropriation of Thomistic virtue ethics.