Over at the Notion Club Papers blog, I discuss Tolkien's probable assumptions and expectations of the time when the novel was drafted; and how these are so very different from now - some 75 later.
These are related to the relationship between Romanticism and Christianity; Tolkien was proposing an increased Romanticism, by means of a new relationship with Faery; but he was (I think) taking Christianity for granted.
Therefore, to understand The Notion Club Papers, we need to supply that Christian basis which is nowadays lacking from our culture.
