[littlemanpoet]

That which follows is the opinion of this poster. Anything said should be understood to be prefaced with "In my opinion..." or "I think that..." ... etc.

From the sixth paragraph of the Foreword:
"As for any inner meaning or "message", it has in the intention of the author none."

From a rather famous Letter Tolkien wrote:
"The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. However that is very clumsily put and sounds more self-important than I feel. For as a matter of fact, I have consciously planned very little;"

Is there contradiction between the two texts? Only in part: "consciously in the revision". But Tolkien qualifies the nature of that consciousness in revision: "the religious element is absorbed into the story and symbolism". Tolkien is probably right that that this was clumsily put.

Before we try to resolve this issue, another piece must be brought to our attention: In paragraph eight of the Foreword, Tolkien says,
"I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one [application] resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other [allegory] in the purposed domination of the author."

I believe that we are talking about neither allegory nor application when "opining" that there is a Christian undercurrent in LotR. We are talking about something that the author did not intend, but could not help but do. Could he be unable to keep himself from it and still be conscious of it? He was not trying to keep himself from it. 'Consciously Catholic' is not a matter of intended, or unintended, meaning, but of world view. That which Tolkien believed about reality, formed the basis, the underpinnings, on which he constructed LotR. So there is no contradiction. Tolkien has not attempted to infuse LotR with Christian meaning, nor has he inserted any allegory. Nor is Christian content in LotR merely application by the reader. Rather, the Christian reader recognizes in LotR that which s/he has come to understand as deep reality precisely because the author wrote what he understood to be reality, into LotR.

One additional comment: Tolkien's work is just as infused with the content of the North, which he loved very much. I'm glad he did.