‘Canonicity’: the Book or the Reader?

[The Saucepan Man]

I apologise, H-I, if I mischaracterised what you were saying.

... you must realize that Tolkien held strong beliefs in the existence of such a God, and that an omnipotent God is present in his writings, to fully understand where Tolkien is coming from in his writing.

I certainly do not have any difficulty with that as a proposition, provided that the distinction is made between understanding "where Tolkien is coming from" and understanding the text itself. I was talking about the latter in putting forward my view that, subject to what is expressly or implicitly stated in the text (and I would include the concept of "providence" here) there is no one "right" way of interpreting (or understanding) his works.