Religous tones in Tolkien's works

Although Tolkien stood his ground insisting that The Lord of the Rings was not a Christian allegory, there are still many critics who see the works as very set in Christian beliefs. All throughout the novels, there are numerous relationships between his works and the Bible.

A major similarity between Tolkien’s works and the bible is Bilbo, the Hobbit, and the twelve dwarves who travel on the adventure with him. As time passes in the Hobbit, and Bilbo proves that he is trustworthy and loyal to his friends, the dwarves trust Bilbo’s decisions following him wherever he feels they should go and doing what he says to do. This leader and followers can be linked to Jesus, who similarly had to prove his goodness and loyalty before his twelve disciples would follow his lead and preach his word.

Another similarity is the twelve rings. Eleven of these rings were good and were given to the leaders of the different groups occupying Middle-Earth. One ring that represented all o...