[jaime1959]

While Tolikien´s faith certainly shaped his vision of Middle Earth, he was foremost a philologist, the world´s foremost authority on Beowulf, and one of the greatest scholars of Old English and the Anglo-Saxon people. His purpose in writing the trilogy and The Silmarillion, was to re-create a "lost mythology" of the Anglo-Saxon people. His faith, his experiences in WWI, and his environmentalism/ruralism were all displayed in his works, but it was his love of language and his English heritage which spurred him to write.

[Damocles]

Although he loathed allegory, Tolkien wrote in a 1953 letter to Fr. Robert Murray: "The Lord of the Rings" is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."

I came to that conclusion as well, but the above statement seems to indicate otherwise.

Looks like more research is in order...