Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in The Lord of the Rings

I really enjoyed this book. I heard Dickerson at a recent conference and picked up his book. I'm a huge Tolkien fan and enjoyed Dickerson's themes. Morality is central to Tolkien's works, and Dickerson really showed that to be true, through references to LoTR, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion and Tolkien's letters. I really liked his exploration of Gandalf's character. He explored the religious themes in the trilogy, without getting too allegorical, and proves that taking the moral high road is central to the lead good characters.

I found this book and its thesis fairly novel.

I bought this because a reviewer had "complained" that Dickerson referred often to the Silmarillion, but it is poorly written, in both the organization and expression of his ideas. Whether the ideas themselves are interesting I could not read far enough to determine.