Heren Istarion,
I think it is logical and admirable for you to set down the personal beliefs and standards that guide your reading of Tolkien and your personal life.
If we're honest with each other, we would probably all admit that we consider our own particular religious and/or philosophical beliefs, whatever those may be, to be the very "best" possible, at least in the sense that they most perfectly explain what we see and experience in life. If we did not regard them as the "best", then why would we ever adopt them? Like you, Heren, God stands at the center of my existence, and I personally see those same ideas reflected in Tolkien's writings. Yet, if we were to discuss the specifics of that belief, my personal perspective would probably not be identical to yours. And the same is true for everyone else posting on this thread. Even if a number of us could agree on the centrality of God in our view of the world and in Tolkien's own writings, our personal conceptions of who that God is and how best to honor him would vastly differ.
Your post hints that the great dividing line on this thread should be seen in those terms: who does or does not view the Truth (and Tolkien's writings by implication) as reflective of the glory and wonder of God. As central as God is to my being, I do not see it that way. This is a community of readers. We may discuss many things and there are times when a poster may dramatically change his or her mind, based on the words that are put forward on this site. But the one thing that is a given, that is unlikely to change because of such a discussion, is our personal outlook and perspective, how we see ourselves and how we regard the Truth, what place we feel God does or does not occupy in the universe. Those feelings and perspectives are a given, and they are unlikely to alter because of anything that is said here.
So where does that leave us? Basically, we have two options. We can each go forward and stress the uniqueness of our personal beliefs, setting down the reasons why those are the "best" set of beliefs to help us understand Tolkien's writings, and why other perspectives are inaccurate or faulty. One danger with this is that we can can end up splitting hairs.
Is it, for example, enough to be a theist, or even a Christian to understand what the author is saying? Someone who is a devout Catholic could argue that you or I can not truly understand what Tolkien means because we do not share this particular subset of his beliefs, and this subset was obviously very important to him. (Please excuse me Heren if indeed you are Catholic!
Someone else who is Catholic could come along and maintain that it isn't enough to be Catholic per se. To understand Tolkien, one must share his particular mindset in regard to the Catholic Church, i.e., the precise feelings he had concerning church reform, women showing up in church wearing slacks and sporting curlers in their hair, or the role of the Church in the world. We can split hairs further and further, until we end up in separate trees throwing coconuts at each other.
The second option is to acknowledge that folk on the Downs do not see the world in exactly the same way, to honestly admit that each of us considers our unique perspective to be the "best one" (because truthfully who doesn't?), but, at the same time, to agree that there is a common ground where we can share and discuss and respect each other's ideas. And this means that personal belief in God, or even seeing the aspect of the numinous in Tolkien's writings, is not a critical prerequisite for a fruitful discussion of the author and his works.
Again, I will reiterate: Tolkien was not Lewis. His primary purpose in writing was not to convert anyone to Christianity or Catholicism. In the course of writing, he did reflect the personal truths that he saw in both Christianity and Catholicism, because that was central to his soul. And he was certainly trying to open us up to the value of goodness, self sacrifice, and fellowship. For those who do believe in God, or at least something beyond, there are obvious hints of light and the numinous. (Personally, these are some of my favorite parts. I have been chasing after Frodo the Elf-friend for over thirty-five years!)
I guess that is one reason this thread is "getting" to me, despite my persistent efforts of late to ignore it. For me, one of the prime messages that comes through in Tolkien is this: people of differing backgrounds, whose culture and beliefs vary widely can come together to fight evil and form close personal bonds. Most of the free folk of Middle-earth did not even know who Eru was, but Tolkien still expected them to stand up and be counted. Whether you were an Elf who understood all the tales of Eru and Valinor, or you were a Hobbit who lived a moral life without any wider grounding of intellect or belief, you still had a part to do, and that part was valuable.
Everything I know about Tolkien's personal life suggests that, despite his strong religious convictions and his desire to pass on the truth of Catholicism to friends, he could also be accepting of differences and was not judgmental in this one sense. His comments about his Jewish friends at the University, his response to the publisher who questioned his Aryan background, and his closeness to Lewis prior to the latter's conversion all reinforce this impression. Tolkien openly vented against stupidity and a blind adherence to the dictates of modern culture. Yet, even in his Letters, he did not denigrate anyone for a lack of belief or claim that such people would have trouble understanding LotR.
If Tolkien can depict the Fellowship and the alliance against Sauron in this positive manner, given all their diverse cultures, beliefs and levels of awareness, why can we not engage in a discussion of the books, without saying that others who don't share our particular beliefs are somehow deficient in how they interpret things or interact with the text?
Heren, I don't mean that you said or implied this in your last post, but there are places on this thread where I do get a sense folk are saying we can't have a fruitful sharing of ideas unless we all approach the text as believers in God. This is frankly not the mindset that I get when I read the messge of LotR.