Child wrote:
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Tolkien openly states that he hopes this story will at times "deeply move" us. To me, those last words say it all. The most profound meaning, the most intense learning, take place when we are touched in our inner soul. Tolkien is not saying or defining exactly how that will happen--whether through love of trees, love of our fellows, or love of God.
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Child, you have here said in a few brief sentences what I have so struggled to say... As a writer of stories, I heartily sympathize with Tolkien in his foreword. Been there; held my tongue just so; til I had a chance to vent in private, that is...
It's good to remember that his letters are private, and so some of these declarations of types and shadows (Catholic-style) were intended to be private. His lectures and essays are another matter of course, and I think from On Faery Stories we know that Tolkien did have ulterior motives.
But he did not declare them in his foreword. And I think if he had, he would have stolen his own thunder.