How Tolkien's Christianity Influenced His Works

Before I start, I have to say that Tolkien detested allegory. His books should not be interpreted as an allegory, Tolkien never wanted his stories to become sermons, unlike some authors ( The Chronicles of Narnia is a perfect example of the opposite of this.). Moving on, though Tolkien did not like allegory, his beliefs and faith clearly were imprinted in his works. In his less popular book, The Silmarillion, he has clearly outlined three "ranks" of beings. Eru Illuvatar (God), The Valar (and to an extent the Maiar, both of which are sort of like Angels), and then all of the races that are Human-like. The second entry in that list acts as guardians over the world, sent by Eru (God), to protect it. Eru told these that he knows all of the history and the evil and that it will all work out to glorify him, something extremely similar to various quotes throughout the Bible. His more popular work, The Lord of the Rings, is also extremely influenced by his faith, even more than The Silmarillion. The One Ring, the ring of the Dark Lord, clearly represents sin. It corrupts all who wear it, and those who aren't are consumed with a longing for it. He also has another character, the infamous Gollum, who represents someone totally and completely consumed with sin. His has life has wasted away, as he is consumed with a desire to get the Ring back. In the end, this insatiable desire led to his death, plunging into a fiery volcano. That is where sin will always lead us, and this is a good reminder of it. People say lectures never stay, but stories do, I think we can all agree that that's true. We can all remember the stories we heard, even if they were decades ago. It's good to search them and find something reflecting God. Look, it's almost always there.