my essay so far...any pointers?

Garrett Near
Ms. Stariha
British Literature
2 June 2011
The religious side of Middle Earth
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit may seem a secular piece from the mystical wizards to the mighty dragons, but it is actually deeply rooted in Catholicism, as was Tolkien himself. David mills says in his critical essay titled One Truth, Many Tales, that “He did see his Lord of the Rings as a ‘fundamentally religious and Catholic work’, he even expressed some frustration that readers did not see this”. The absence of a supreme being or deity ruling over middle earth automatically makes this novel seem a secular piece, which David mills also addresses, saying “God is not mentioned at all in the book. All that the characters and the readers know is that some power, unnamed and unknown, is guiding the events”.
Tolkien grew up with his mother Mabel, who was later accepted into the catholic church, as was her two sons, John and Hilary, and they all became devout Catholics. Tolkien’s own website, the Tolkien society, says about his religion: “In 1900, together with her sister May, she was received into the Roman Catholic Church. From then on, both Ronald and Hilary were brought up in the faith of Pio Nono, and remained devout Catholics throughout their lives.”
The closest thing to a deity in The hobbit, is the ring of power itself, evident by its power to control minds, such as Gollum’s: “It wont see us, my precious? No. It won’t see us, and its nasty little sword will be useless, yes quite.” Although Gollum’s mind is easily susceptible to corruption, in later books, such as The two towers, and the return of the king, Frodo also becomes a slave to the ring, to a point where he refuses to destroy it. Tolkien may have had intentions of representing sin with the one ring, to show how sin destroys lives, and controls intentions.