Is Worship Inherently Evil?

And out of it the world was made. For Darkness alone is worshipful, and the Lord thereof may yet make other worlds to be gifts to those that serve him, so the increase of their power shall find no end.

-Sauron to Ar-Pharazon in The Silmarillion

Throughout The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, the term ‘worship’ is only used to describe those who honor evil, whether that be the Black Numenorians worshipping Sauron or Gollum worshipping Shelob. Eru Ilúvatar – the most powerful being of all – is never described as being ‘worshipped’ by the Valar or any other being (groups like the Numenorians did still honor Eru, but that is different from worship), yet Melkor and Sauron – Ilúvatar’s creations – are both described as having worshippers. To describe those who honor Good, Tolkien uses the word ‘follow’ instead of ‘worship.’ Because this word choice is so distinct, I believe it to be an intentional showcase of Tolkien’s belief that to be worshipped, blindly submitted to because of perceived power, requires one to be corrupted and robbed of free will. To be followed, however, is a choice freely made and, therefore, a demonstration that one has earned their following by being Good. 

To Tolkien, the word ‘worship’ means that one’s free will has been corrupted by another, which is why he believes it to be inherently evil. When Aragorn and the party come to speak with The Mouth of Sauron, The Mouth is described as being a member of the Black Numenorians:

….. for they established their dwellings in Middle-Earth

during the years of Sauron’s domination,

And they worshipped him, being enamored of evil knowledge.

Tolkien attributes the cause of the Black Numenorians’ worship to their infatuation with evil knowledge. Specifically, Tolkien uses the word ‘enamored,’ which connotes the end-state of someone after they have fallen in love. When one falls in love, it is often described as an uncontrollable feeling that causes the feeler to commit acts that do not correspond with their nature, hence the cultural phrase crazy in love. It can be said that one who is in love does not possess true free will, as the feeling reorganizes their priorities and influences their decisions. It is important to note that Tolkien is not saying all free will is lost to the point where the person does not have responsibility for their actions, just that it is heavily influenced. Tolkien himself has experienced the influence of his free will due to falling in love. In a letter to his son Micheal written on March 6, 1941, Tolkien recounts the three-year period where he did not speak to his future wife, as they were separated:

[Not writing to your mother] was extremely hard, painful and bitter, especially at first. 

The effects were not wholly good: I fell back into folly and slackness and misspent a good deal of my first year at College.

To be distracted by anything – assuming he has first hyper-fixated on it – is out of character for Tolkien; once more, ‘slackness’ is not a character trait he has ever been known for. Because Tolkien acted so out of character when he was in love – and separated from this love – to the point where he could be described as crazy in love, it is no surprise that he understands how love could reorganize someone’s priorities (in his case, make them not study what they originally dreamed of studying), and dominate their free will. Therefore, his choice to use the word ‘enamored’ when describing the cause of the Black Numenorian’s worship of evil knowledge is intentional to show that the Black Numenorians have been corrupted by Sauron; he now dominates their free will when they are in this state of infatuation.

When Tolkien speaks of those honoring another, that is to recognize that one has demonstrated their Goodness and deserves the service of others, he uses the term ‘follow’ to describe this relationship; he believes that those who ‘follow’ have made this choice out of their true free will because their leader has not corrupted this very free will. In order for one to be followed, one has to allow their followers to remain uncorrupted, which makes one Good. Therefore, to ‘follow’ describes the relationship of those in service to Good. When Eowyn asks Aragorn not to go to Dunharrow to enlist the aid of the dead because she believes this act to be suicidal, Aragorn responds:

‘It is not madness, lady.’ he answered; ‘for I go on a path appointed.  

But those who follow me do so of their own free will, and if 

they wish now to remain and ride with the Rohirrim, they may do so…’

By saying ‘those who follow me do so of their own free will,’ Aragorn makes the explicit connection between following and free will; specifically, that in order to truly follow, one must have free will. Furthermore, Aragorn describes his responsibility as ‘a path appointed,’ implying that he has a duty to go to Dunharrow; that duty being in service to what is Right, or Good. In describing his journey in this way, Aragorn makes it clear that he is in service to Good, and that he has not corrupted those in service to him; therefore, Aragorn is Good, and meets both the criteria to have followers and not worshippers.

So, is worship inherently evil? When worship is used to describe the honoring of anything that is not God, it is inherently evil. However, Tolkien changes the meaning of worship when he describes the worship of the Christian God; for clarity, the term ‘divine worship’ will be used to describe this specific form of worship. True divine worship requires free will, but it also requires one to submit. As these are both tenets of typical worship and the act of following, they fit in neither of those categories described above. Therefore, Tolkien creates a new category for the worshippers of the Christian God; divine worship is the choice to submit to God and is inherently Good.

-SCJ