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Originally Posted by alatar
What would a religion based on Tolkien's works look like? What would the doctine and dogma be?
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Well, considering that the major text would probably be
The Silmarillion and therefore thinking about what that book discusses, it would probably be a fairly open religion. As Tolkien discusses in the letter I quoted before, he wanted to create stories that had a balance of story-telling/history and morality. Therefore, if you look at the text, it is not steeped with morality, but there is a definite hint at kindness and charity being desirable, while greed and betrayal are wrong. There is a definite sense of family values, of loyalty and the like. At the same time, there is no strict set of infallible rules - such as the Ten Commandments. One would more use the actions of people such as Luthien, Feanor and the like to guide them.
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Originally Posted by alatar
Would it be to 'live in the ways of Iluvatar' as shown by Saint Gandalf, Saint Aragorn, Saint Frodo, etc in order to avoid being sent to the...well...Void? What would the structure be - centralized or more dispersed? Is there a 'priesthood' or some other ranking of adherents, or can anyone 'speak first.' Would there be associated rituals - note that a ritual may portray an event with some significance, and somewhere down the timeline take on a completely new or different meaning.
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There does not seem to be a definite punishment for mortals who are not deemed to be "good" and "benevolent". I suppose they could be threatened with not finding their kin in the Halls of Mandos - being forced to wait for all eternity to be reunited. And stories, such as that of Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, and Sam, would probably be used a parables - for perseverence, responsibility, humility, greatness, etc. I would think that the worship would be more dispersed - the religion strikes me to be more of a "way of life" type of religion than one with strict doctrine and guidelines for behavior. There would be respect and loyalty to one another - an acknowledgement of a shared belief, but probably not devotion outside of celebration of holidays. Judging by the types of rituals we see in the books, "holidays" would probably be more joyous events - celebrating the vanquishing of evil or the triumph of true love. Hobbits would be treasured as pure beings, so people would probably strive to be far more like them. Therefore, since I'm 5'10" (1.778 m), I'd be out of the question for worship. ;-)
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Originally Posted by alatar
Would the true believer have to make some kind of journey to a volcano, and throw a ring into it ("By the grace granted by Iluvatar I cast this Ring into the Fire")? Would there be some ritual where the priest points a dagger at the heart of the supplicant, who then calls on Elbereth Gilthoniel, thereby 'turning' the power of the blade away from his/her heart?
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Probably would not be a bad idea. Spiders would probably also be considered an omen of evil. But the journey would be a joyous one - full of hope and companionship.
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Originally Posted by alatar
Would the Ring be a good icon?
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Imagine the rappers decked out in bling - instead of a large, diamond-encrusted cross, a large platinum ring with ruby Tengwar characters on it? Wouldn't that be far classier?
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Originally Posted by alatar
And of course we could have a schism (most probably over Balrog's wings).
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And Legolas' hair color. The Lychmorn Tolkienites and the Lychglaur Tolkienites.