Well, writers write what they know, don't they? So, it's not improbable to suggest that Tolkien's material has some religious connotations, especially since he was a fairly religious person. <P>I know a lot of people who associate religion right along with Lord of the Rings, but I don't like to. I consider myself to be a religious person, but I like to keep LOTR seperate from religion, because I don't believe it is centered around that. It's a great story, but I don't think it is a religious allegory and I personally would never view it that way.

I have had people say the same. Their reason for not liking it was that it was too spiritistic. Meaning it had magic in it and they associate that with evil and sorcery. That's all well and good and they are entitled to that opinion. IMHO it's a story a book of fiction, nothing more. I haven't come across anyone who has compared it to the Bible, but I have heard it compared to "Star Wars"... which is funny. <P>To me LOTR is and always will be LOTR. I don't read into it because I see it for what it is and that is a story. I don't see anything spiritistic about it, nor do I see similaraties between it and the Bible.

I couldent agree more that people who let religeon get in the way of the story are just spoiling it for themselves. I know people like that very well, and they end up nitpicking asnything, just to try and get their point across, and usually failing miserably.

Tolkien was converted to Chrisitanity later in life, and a lot of allagories slipped into his writing. Tolkien personal hated allagories, saying they forced the reader to think what you want them to think, but they still slipped in. Gandalf was not equal to God, but rather an 'angel', Iluvatar (creater of the elves, and lif-giver to all the living things in Middle Earth and the rest of Tolkien's world) was actually parrallelled to God. So I can see religion in it, but people over-react a lot! A=I had to do a short report on Tolkien's analogies, if you were wondering.

Forget the A=, and it's life-giver.