[goldwine]

Thanks for your post, Airetauriel. I don't believe anyone can persuade with words, no matter how eloquent, that God exists! Faith is believing in that which you cannot see or words interpret for you.
I still believe that a faith that was so fundamental to Tolkien would not have an obvious outcome in his writing. I know that it is not a purely allegorical storyline, and that Tolkien probably had no intensely Christian agenda to permeate his texts, but he couldn't help revealing his beliefs in his writing - the consuming task of so many years.
We each reveal much about our beliefs in these brief commentaries - both intentionally and unintentionally.
Don't ya just love a good debate!