The Lord of the Bible?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Mark

In your opinion. Which, in your opinion, deletes the spiritual aspect of his Catholicism (spirituality being the essence of his faith) from your argument. And in my opinion, that deletion makes no sense. So, in my oinion, your argument makes no sense.

No, Christianity is a religion & the religion of Christianity is absent from the book. Claims for the superiority of Christianity over other traditions without any supporting evidence is just cultural supremicism.

As to where Tolkien's 'spirituality' came from I have to admit I have no evidence as regards where it came from, so I'd just be making something up if I answered that. It could be it was a 'Pagan' spirituality (hence his deep love of nature), or a Christian one. Certainly he believed it came from his Catholic faith. My statement about 'spirituality' in the work was merely a reference to there being a 'spiritual' realm & beings within the story not to the story itself being a 'spiritual' work – which is a matter of opinion/subjective judgement.

Read Leaf By Niggle lately? Or Tree and Leaf? Or Mythopoeia?

Nope – just finished Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy & now finally got around to Gibbon's Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, so I probably won't be reading them again in the foreseeable future.