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I can only imagine that whomsoever decided to apply the title to those who did not practice a medical profession did so with the implication that these 'Doctors' had taken their field to such a level that, whatever it was, it healed or to use the root word made whole those whom opened themselves to the Doctor's influence, regarless of the specific profession involved.
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Actually the word and title "doctor" derives from the Latin
doctor, a teacher, (from docere: to teach). A doctor of Philology is every bit as much a doctor as the MD who treats him, it's just that a medical doctorate qualifies someone to practice medicine.
Certainly your experiences bear out my view that the title suits Tolkien perfectly. His use of language alone is an education, but he also manages to expose the follies of modern society without recourse to clumsy allegory, which makes him all the more of an educator in my opinion. The Shire, for example, is almost a manifesto for an ideal society; one in which no complicated machines are required (apart from clocks, apparently); in which life is simple and in tune with nature, and in which authority is loosely imposed and highly accountable. In that respect it can sit happily in the company of Utopia, Erewhon, Lilliput and even Prospero's island.
Like Swift, Tolkien shows us through the actions of his characters and what befalls them how people ought to behave, and this is scarcely surprising, given his original intent: one of the uses of mythology is to pass on the values and standards of the culture that spawns it. Most importantly of all, however, he does this in a manner that entertains. He doesn't preach, save through example and any parallels between his world and that which we inhabit stem from the sheer detail of the setting, the carefully consistent and plausible behaviour of the characters.
I'm running out of time here, so I'll have to cut this short. Suffice it to say that Tolkien was a doctor if ever there was one.