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Quite, davem. If this was the only evidence of "consciously Christian in the revision", it would be a weak case.
Now, I don't have the Christopher Tolkien books about Tolkien's process of writing LotR, but I've read them. I recall that the sudden deepening in his original draft occurred when Tolkien got to Weathertop, and he determined that he needed to start all over from the beginning with the new deepening taken into account. Therefore, it is logical to say that this new deepening is NOT "consciously Christian in the revision", but what Tolkien saw it to be: a more serious and adult story than The Hobbit had been.
Not having the HoME volumes, I can't check them against the final version in my possession. So I'd be interested to learn from those of you who do, how the original versions go compared to those that I quote as potential signs of "consciously Christian in the revision". But for now I must go do some research.
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