Tolkien coined the word "sub-creator". What he meant by this term is a person, an author, poet, writer, that has the ability to create such a world that it can be believe to be true and real. This world is a realm you can truly enter. Here's an excerpt from the biography:
"'What really happens', he wrote, 'is that the story-maker proves a successful "sub-creator". He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is "true": it accords with the laws of that world. you therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside'...
'Every writer making a secondary world,' he declared, 'wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it.'" - Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography
The ability of the reader to enter into this secondary world is "the willing suspension of disbelief". I've actually come across Tolkien's "Sub-creator/sub-creation" before in a philosophy class I took on Tolkien. But, it wasn't until finishing this biography that I began to see a connection with faith.
As the truth about reality-about God, the world, and ourselves-is communicated to us in a wide variety of ways, we experience a progressive transformation. We not only think differently and act differently, but we actually begin to desire and feel differently. As we take on the "mind of Christ" we also take on His desires and participate in the dynamics of His active love. - Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints
Quite naturally everyone develops their own world view based on their upbringing, culture, religion, politics, entertainment, etc. But, as Christians, to best live out our call to holiness is to try to see the world through God's eyes. We are to strive to conform our wills to His. This makes me think of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit : wisdom, counsel, knowledge, piety, understanding, fortitude, fear of the Lord.
These gifts allow us to suspend our flawed world view and conform it to His to better live this life and spread and defend the faith. Fear of the Lord (awe and wonder) allows us to truly see our relationship to God, he is God and we aren't God. This is not a fear of punishment but a fear of ruining a relationship, the fear of creating a chasm between us and him. This leads to wisdom. Wisdom allows us to take the high ground as in chess or war, to get an eagle eye view of the spiritual realm of the world. Through this we come to see what is owed to God, praise and thanksgiving. Piety allows us to give him that which he is owed. By taking this position of praise and thanksgiving it humbles us to look to God and his Church for knowledge and understanding of things in the spiritual realm. Counsel allows us to used the knowledge and understanding we have to then realize and choose the right, true, and good in situations. Finally, fortitude allows us to then act when it isn't easy.
When reading fiction that gives us worlds we can truly enter we are willing to suspend our disbelief and abide by the rules and laws of these worlds. Works like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter give us such terrain. We come to understand that magic, wizards, hobbits, elves, house elves, dwarves, dragons, ents, aurors, dementors, orcs, and balrogs, rings of power, horcruxes, and a dark lord truly exist. There truly is a wizarding world, Lothlorien, Azkaban, Rivendell, The Ministry of Magic, the Forbidden Forest, Mirkwood, The Shire, Hogwarts, Gondor, Mordor, and Mount Doom, and we know how to get there.
As we come to see this world as it truly is, through the eyes of it's Creator, we see that there is more to it than meets the eye, the seen and unseen. We are more than just creatures, we are adopted sons and daughters. God is more than a creator and clock maker, he is a bridegroom inviting us, his bride, to his wedding feast. There is a heaven, a hell, virtues, vices, graces, angels and demons, and there is a narrow path that is not easy but must be taken. Jesus came to live amongst us and die for our sins so that we could be with him in heaven for eternity. He left behind a Church and the Holy Spirit to help guide us.
If we have a willingness to suspend our belief that there is no rhyme or reason, that there is no purpose to our existence, that we become tree food at the end of our life and that's it, then we will be able to truly journey through this life because a journey has a destination.
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. - Romans 12:2
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength. Take to heart these words which I command you today. Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them on your arm as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates." - Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Here's a great video from Bishop Robert Barron on Confirmation and The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Bishop Barron on Lord of the Rings: Part 1
Bishop Barron on Lord of the Rings: Part 2
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