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explicitly Christian concepts of absolute truth, good and evil, and the sure hand of Providence.

Does this mean that absolute truth, good and evil and the sure hand of Providence are nowhere to be found in the Old Testament?

I don't see anything explicitly Christian in LOTR. Even the return of Elassar(Aragorn) to the throne of Gondor conforms more to the Judaic view of a human Messiah reclaiming the throne of David. The story itself contains many elements of Germanic, Norse and Celtic mythology but nothing explicitly Christian that I can identify. The romance (immortal woman chooses mortal lover and gives up immortality) is straight out of Die Walküre but not the Bible.

If Christians see a Christian message in LOTR, fine with me, but I wouldn't say that such a message is explicit.

I agree; there are of course themes in LOTR that can be found in Christianity, but the same themes can also be found in many mythologies around the world.

There is nothing in LOTR that is specifically Christian; people are just reading it into the books

Incredibly,some Christians did the same thing with the Harry Potter books