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Originally Posted by Esty
I doubt that it became a substitute religion for many, and am not sure if it lead many to seek religion in the church
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Perhaps it filled the gap they felt with the loss of traditional religion. Its interesting that the book which so inspired them was such a 'spiritual' work but one which didn't promote a specific religion. Perhaps it wasn't that they had rejected religion, but that religion had moved away from them.
What LotR offered, I think, was a spritual perspective. I remember that after reading LotR I became much more intensely aware of the natural world around me. Middle-earth 'overlaid' the countryside around me & so made it more 'magical'.
I think the danger of studying Tolkien is that it can actually lead us away from that experience (which is why so many people who love LotR will have nothing to do with HoM-e for instance). Its too easy to get sidetracked into studying his sources & doing what he condemned the Beowulf critics of doing - treating the work not as a poem but as a source of historical & cultural information & in the process rejecting the story & the magic.
I'm glad that most readers don't simply go on to study the sources, or go back to church in response to reading Tolkien. The sense of awe & wonder the work inspires is too precious & too easily lost. Tolkien's work gives us something unique. The sources (& religion) give us something too - maybe something more 'important', but that sense of wonder in the natural world is also important. Those studying Tolkien are perhaps seeking to recapture & even enhance that first experience, to build on it, but I'm not sure they don't risk losing it in the process, by turning it into 'work'.