The Lord of the Bible?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Raynor

I believe that Letter #142 which we both quoted points oppositely. It is exactly the purpose of the author that it is beyond doubt; the only thing left to discuss is the form in which he presented Christians idea.

Let's look at the whole passage rather than the juicy first sentence.

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;

And let's also bear in mind that this letter was written to a Catholic priest, who also seems to have been the first person to suggest this later Galadriel/Mary connection, even before Tolkien began to tinker with her character. So now we have context.

Let's note that Tolkien makes his grand statement, and then later revokes that grand statement, saying he planned very little. And from looking at HoME, as we are privileged to have the drafting process in front of us, he did indeed plan very little, but redrafted much. And as davem points out there just isn't the evidence to prove that he went through and Catholicised the text. As Tolkien himself says, the religious element is absorbed into the story and symbolism, and as Tolkien also said, the story is not an allegory. Therefore some balance point in interpretation must be found, and it lies in that charcaters and situations are not meant to represent Biblical characters and situations but that the story, the narrative itself, is in sympathy with Christian ideals. Which it is. Isn't the Bible filled with tales of good vs evil? Of the insignificant winning over the worldly and powerful?

So to sum up from Tolkien's usually misquoted words (like the 'Mythology for England' misquote), it's there if you want to find it, but only scant references may have been put there on purpose.