"Our theological antennae attuned to the clue being offered, we begin to see that the whole of The Hobbit is a figurative account of Bilbo's baptism into the fullness of life. He had been "dead" when trying to preserve the life of creature comforts at Bag End, his home in the Shire, and needed to "die to himself," laying down his life self-sacrificially for others, which is the hallmark and meaning of love, in order to find the fullness of life. He had to lose his life in order to gain it. He had to bury his old life of self-centerdness in order to be resurrected into the new life of adventure. He had to risk death in order to find life. In short and in sum, he needed a baptism of death-defying and life-giving grace."