Her particular expertise is the intersection of biblical theology with contemporary culture, current events and politics, literature, music and art.

Rutledge graduated from Sweet Briar College in 1959 magna cum laude with highest honors in English.

[2] Rutledge worked at Christ's Church, Rye, New York, creating and leading a Christian program for high school pupils.

In the theologian Ralph C. Wood's view, she shows how the biblical story "forms the deep structure of Tolkien's epic", The Lord of the Rings.

[3] He specially likes her account of the ability of words to heal or to dispirit, as when Galadriel elevates the dwarf Gimli, the dying Thorin blesses Bilbo, and Aragorn acknowledges the good in the dying Boromir on the one hand, or when Wormtongue whispers poisonous thoughts into Theoden's mind, or Sam makes the monster Gollum even worse by always accusing him of deception, on the other.