Tolkien answered him immediately, and in his answer he revealed the core of his own philosophy as a writer and as a Christian thinker.96 Yes, the story of Jesus the Christ is a kind of myth: it is the authentic story of the Dying God who returns to life to rescue his people from sin and death and bring them to “the Blessed Land,” where “though they make anew, they make no lie.”97 The difference between Christianity and all the pagan myths is that this Dying God actually entered into history, lived a real life, and died a real death.
