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Originally Posted by davem
In the Letters in particular we see Tolkien on the defensive a great deal of the time, being challenged by Christian readers on the orthodoxy of many elements of the story. Tolkien is clearly thinking in his feet in many of those letters & attempting to convince himself as much as his correspondents of the Christianity of his story.
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This is how you choose to interpret the Letters. I don't find this in them at all. I'm not surprised by this; it shows that you and I view these issues through different lenses.
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Originally Posted by davem
As to finding clear & obvious 'Christian' elements/themes in the story. I suppose you can, but only if you know nothing of myth & fairy story.
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This is a rather objectionable statement. I do happen to know plenty about myth and fairy story, as you should know; yet because I view these issues through different lenses than you, I see things that you don't see, and vice versa. The lens through which I see these things is that the myths to which you refer are not unlike the "unknown god" on the Acropolis in the book of Acts that the apostle Paul uses to present the Christian gospel to the Greeks. In like manner, the myths are dim, altered, sometimes shattered, often debased and diffused, reflections of the truth as presented in the Christian bible. That is my lens.