There is no religion or God in The Lord of the Rings.

This is a valid point of view by those who have not read the The Silmarillion or paid especially close attention to the text.  At first glimpse Tolkien appears to have taken the reader to the "Golden Days" before Christianity when men lived by the dictates of their heathen consciences without the guiding force of a Priest or Monk.  However, a higher power is referred to often in the text.  Frodo was "meant" to find the Ring, Gandalf says.  After leaving the fellowship to escape Boromir, Frodo becomes the battleground for two distinct forces.  It is uncertain whether these entities are of his own devising or outside forces though the latter is most likely.  As I have not yet concluded my rereading of The Lord of the Rings I am unable to give sufficient examples from the text, however, Tolkien's remarks shall suffice.

Tolkien considered his wizards as angels who were sent by the Valar to aid man in his struggle against Sauron.    Since I am at this time unsure whether or not wizards as angels can be proved in the text, I present a second reason for which the existence of wizards are proof of a higher power.  Wizards are obviously superior beings.  Although they too can die in body (though their spirit goes somewhere in particular rather than just flying wither the wind goes) and make mistakes, they are wiser and more powerful than elves as well as being long lived if not immortal (which is likely the case).  As wizards are not a separate race but a set of entities one must deduct that they are not as the other creatures of Middle-earth.    It is hinted that wizards must report to powers higher than themselves.   After his resurrection, Gandalf remarks in the story of his death that naked he was sent back for a while.  Back to whom?  Why?  The whom is not readily apparent in the text of The Lord of the Rings although The Silmarillion explains for whence these wizards came and what their purpose is on Middle-earth:   "Even as the first shadows were felt in Mirkwood there appeared in the west of Middle-earth the Istari, whom Men called the Wizards . . . and only to Elrond and Galadriel did he reveal that they came over the Sea.  But afterwards it was said among the Elves that they were messengers sent by the Lords of the West to contest the power of Sauron, if he should rise again, and to move Elves and Men and all living things of good will to valiant deeds.  In the likeness of Men they appeared, old but vigorous, and they changed little with the years and aged but slowly, though great cares lay on them;  great wisdom they had, and many powers of mind and hand" (The Silmarillion, 299-300).  Then Gandalf's spirit flew back to the Valar naked, without his body, and he was healed and sent back, more powerful, to Middle-earth.   Obvsiouly, if no religion exists, there is some higher power.

The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien writes, "is primarily a study of the ennoblement (or sanctification) of the humble" and that though he is a religious man (Tolkien was a devout Catholic) or rather because he was a religious man, "[t]he Incarnation of God is an infinitely greater thing than anything I would dare to write.  Here I am only concerned with Death as part of the nature, physical and spiritual, of Man and with Hope without guarantees" (Letters, 237).  In The Silmarillion, Tolkien writes of God, Il�vatar, but he does not write about the becoming of God, only of his deeds.  The lack of organized religion in The Lord of the Rings is a necessity if Tolkien is to write "of Man and with Hope without guarantees" which is an integral part of the victory of the Fellowship.  The dignity and bravery of the Fellowship comes partly from the dangers they face, but the dangers are but symptoms Sauron's powerful shadow, more powerful than Aragon or Gandalf or any other the others in the Fellowship or the Western allied countries.  Frodo, especially, stands in the face of horrors and inevitable death in Mordor because he hopes:  Frodo has no reason for hope, hope of success or of rescue.   Yet he travels on with the hope of achieving his impossible goal.  Same, though he knows Frodo to be death in the towers at Mordor, hopes beyond reason that his master lives still and turns aside from his path to save Frodo who is not in fact dead. Gandalf knows that his forces are inferior to Sauron's and that eventually his armies will be obliterated or scattered before those of the enemy.  Yet he hopes, though he is told that the hobbits he sent into Mordor are in the hands of the enemy, that the sacrifice of his army and his friends will give the hobbits time to achieve their task.   In these instances, few chosen among the many, hope beyond reasonable cause for hope is rewarded by the very accomplishments that were wished for.  If religion was known to most sentient children of Il�vatar then Frodo's journey would not be as meaningful.  There would be no question of whether or not he will throw the ring into the pit at Mount Doom for the reader would know that God will guide and protect him, and Frodo would know it too, rendering his sufferings less.  Neither the Western forces nor the reader would fear lack of success for God is on our side as are the Valar.   Where would the struggle be if such certainly exists?

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