Provocative topic, as always, lmp! And great answers all (so far)!
Okay, at the risk of sounding like one of those "thick as brick" people, I'm going to submit here that Tolkien was not writing stories, he was writing myths, myths being defined as 'stories told to explain why things happened, or to illustrate a point.' So it is not enough for a writing to just be a story, it must first be a myth, in order to first be capable of being considered in the spirit of Tolkien.
Secondly, as pointed out in #12, the myth must be religious in nature, but to be considered in the spirit of Tolkien, the myth must have its roots in Roman Catholicism. Tolkien saw the world through the eyes of a Roman Catholic (can you imagine how different LOTR would have been if he had been, say, Hindu?), but he had a far deeper understanding of Catholicism -- and of God in general -- than do most Catholics that have ever been around. His myths are so deeply spiritual and they contain such profound explanations for the truths that are tenets of the Catholic faith, that it has been suggested by some that Tolkien was a mystic. (Okay, I've started to ramble and gush, but have stopped myself. Sorry!)
[ October 31, 2002: Message edited by: Evenstar1 ]
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