Letter 142:
Quote:
The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.
...[No 'cults' or practiced religions in LotR]...
For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.[/i]
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Letter 165:
Quote:
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[LotR] is not 'about' anything but itself. Certainly it has no allegorical intentions, general, particular, or topical, moral, religious, or political. The only criticism that annoyed me was one that it 'contained no religion'. ... It is a monotheistic world of 'natural theology'. ... I am in any case myself a Christian; but the 'Third Age' was not a Christian world.
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Tolkien didn't write LotR with preaching in mind, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a Christian book. Tolkien himself says so, but I think that he doesn't mean the same kind of a "Christian book" as many of you seem to think of "Christian books". To me, a Christian book might not be more than a book in accord with the Christian moral teachings - the LotR certainly is - and if a book is "Christian" it isn't necessarily intended to be Christian and Christian alone. A Christian book can be enjoyed by anyone, and its moral import can be valuable for anyone (like it has been said, most major world religions believe in the same kind of ideals).
I, as a Christian, did not (at the first reading) notice any particular religious symbolism in LotR. After I had read the Silmarillion and other posthumously published works it became clear to me how religious Tolkien actually was. On my later rereadings of LotR I have noticed the similarities between the morals taught by Christ and the morality of the good characters in LotR. That doesn't mean that LotR is allegorical, just that it shares the same basic beliefs of human nature as the Bible - and therefore I think that it's accurate and proper to call it a Christian book, especially as the author confirmed that it
was written with Christian ideals in mind.
Mithadan, where did you find a quote saying that Tolkien didn't consciously inject Christianity to LotR? There are quotes where he says that it isn't about religion, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any religious ideas there... they're embedded to the story and its symbolism.
PS. The story of Kullervo is not in the Norse Eddas, but in the Finnish Kalevala. Also, I think that it's quite far-fetched to say that Tolkien 'directly ripped off' the story of Kullervo, but there are definitely similarities and even 'directly ripped off' (if you want to use such a phrase) elements.