The Emblems of Religion don't belong ... or do they?

[Imladris]

It certainly works very well in LotR. It was one of his primary criticisms of the works of C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams (fellow "inklings").

Do you agree or disagree that the emblems of religion don't belong in fantasy?

What were Tolkien's reasons for discluding them? Which reasons were valid back when he wrote? Are they still valid now?

By "emblems of religion" I'm assuming you mean emblems of religions such as Christianity, Catholocism, etc If I understand you aright, then I say they have no place in Fantasy or Mythology

The role of mythology is to make things more clear, transpose the abstract into the understandable In a word (or more), I think that fantasy/myth is beyond this world, and the religions of this world

Another reason I think they have no place is because the purpose of myth is to creat a real world I would think that putting a religious symbol would wrench the reader from the suspended state of disbelief back into this world Thus, religious symbols have no place, for they wrench the reader from that other world, back into this world

Edit: However, if I am mistaken in thinking of religion emblems as real religions but rather you mean it in the sense of Faramir and his men in that cave, as long as it is part of the story, and enhances it then it belongs