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Originally Posted by davem
In short, I think if we only had LotR & knew nothing of its author's life & beliefs I can't help thinking that no Christian would make a claim to its being a Christian work by a Christian author - though they may notice some 'similarities' between Galadriel/Mary, Lembas/the Host, etc.
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Actually, the history of the discussions surrounding LotR before the publishing of
The Silmarillion are precisely the opposite of what you suggest. I remember many articles in a host of magazines that were quite specifically about Aragorn, Frodo, and Gandalf as specifically Christ figures - -
before 1977. And that's just one example.
Like you,
davem, I think that Tolkien has done us a service in revivifying the old pagan myths, because there were riches of truth in them. To read LotR as a pagan novel is certainly possible, but it still misses much. Too much that Tolkien included, on purpose.
To suggest that Tolkien became obsessed after LotR was published, to make it appear that there was something (Eru) in it that he hadn't put in there in the first place, doesn't square with the evidence. Tolkien plainly stated that LotR was consciously Catholic in the revision. Otherwise, Tolkien was faking himself out, and that might be going just a bit far.... It seems to me that you have to take huge efforts to wrestle the facts into this theory. Occam's Razor obtains here.
Regardless, the spiritual power in the books goes beyond anything in pagan myth. Of course, that's an opinion based on my personal perceptions, but that's what I experience when I read LotR.