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Tolkien did not design this in. He did not mean for the interpretation I just gave to be there. It came out simply because Tolkien was sufficiently Christian that when he set about myth-making, he ended up with Christian myth not pagan myth.

Oh yes he did "design it in". You need to go read Joseph Pearce's books on Tolkein. You've got that totally wrong. The great man believed that allegorical works like C.S. Lewis' Narnia books were the wrong way to reach the "unwashed". He had every intention of creating a Christian myth that could make its way into the minds and hearts of readers who were not Christian or were only nominally so.

Any good quotes from Pearce's book that demonstrates some of the design?

What really fascinates me, though, is how he captured the imagination of multiple generations and many from those generations who wouldn't give even a moment to listen to a religious presentation. This author is correct in saying that it's the morality of the world that they enter into.

And then they wish for a nobility, a loyalty, a steadfastness, .... and the recognize the reality of weakness, failure, coming up short....and they admit to evil, hatred, violence.... and they nod to eternity, a guiding hand, a returning King.

They get involved in that world and wish to be a part of the noble.

How do we, as Christians, work toward that same response? That yearning toward the nobility that can be ours as a child of God?