Well, Tolkien was human. Humans do lie from time to time.
It is possible that Tolkien had an ulterior motive in stating specifically that it was not allegorical. I don't think he wanted people to go into his work with the thoughts 'I wonder what he was intending to do' or 'what deeper meaning was there here?' As he states in the forward, he just wanted to write a story that people would enjoy reading, and judging by the very existence of this website, I'd say he's had a bit of success in that department.
If he did put some references to Christianity in his work, its possible he wanted them to be more subtle than in, say, Lewis' work. Narnia is so blatantly Christian when compared to The Lord of the Rings that sometimes people forget that Tolkien was actually Christian himself. I just don't think Tolkien wanted to be seen as writing Christian literature because in most cases that would limit his audience. Granted, Narnia is read by none Christians and many can enjoy it without looking into Lewis' motives in writing his tale. I think the same can be said for The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien being Christian would have - one would hope - agreed with the moral teachings of Jesus and the writers of the Bible, it stands to reason then that his work might reflect this.
I think my point is that, if Tolkien did put Christian allegory in his work, it was probably not intended to be a major thing. I personally am satisfied that he wanted to write a story for people to enjoy, the search for deeper meaning is what he didn't want, really.
There is a line in The Screwtape Letters which I think the principal follows. When Screwtape is talking about learned people looking at historical text, he says that they 'look at it's context, which writers inspired it, what was the writers state of mind when writing it [...] the one question they never ask is "Is it true?"'. I think we can apply this to Middle Earth. Not asking , 'is it true?', of course, but 'is it an enjoyable story?'
Perhaps?
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Originally Posted by lal
That's a whole different kettle of fish.
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I'm sure there are laws against putting fish in kettles.