I hope you won't mind my responding in detail with what I think about this; I am passionate about this topic. Tolkien deliberately removed references to prayer

I hope you won't mind my responding in detail with what I think about this; I am passionate about this topic. Tolkien deliberately removed references to prayer and religion in his fantasy world to avoid two potential traps: by showing a fictional religion, he would risk contradicting his faith; by explicitly loading scenes of Christian prayer into his fantasy, he would undermine the quality of the fiction with "allegory," thus undermining his own message by making it unpalatable to audiences. What I am referring to when I talk about the spirit of Christianity that infuses LotR is not any explicitly allegorical meaning, but -- following Tolkien's own quotes to this effect -- different pieces that are left here and there in the text. For example, for Christian readers of Tolkien, different aspects of Christ are typically understood to be found spread across the figures of Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn. Other Christian elements in the text include Gandalf's advice to Frodo to spare Gollum, and the fact that his mercy is ultimately what saves the quest; Gandalf's return from the dead, reborn and cloaked in the kingly majesty of white; the lore of Sauron as a fallen elf, tying him to the devil, who is also referred to as "the enemy" in Christianity; the way the ring gives earthly power but drains the soul, whereas sacrifice and hardship seem hopeless at the time, but have true power in the end, etc. If you want a pretty good idea of a believer's perspective on this, there's a fairly good article by Ignatius Insight [1], but I don't know how persuasive it will be to someone who rejects the underlying premises. [1] http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/pkreeft_christlotr_nov05.asp http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/pkreeft_christlo...