In the above lines, the author offers an important clue for analysis, highlighting the diffuse religious element that is implicitly present in the fabric of his narratives and?"?"especially?"?"in their symbolism. Like all great Catholic writers of the 20th century (whose pantheon includes Joseph Conrad, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Julien Green, and Graham Greene), Tolkien does not practice a programmatic literature, an explicit, 'ideological' type of apologetics, so to speak, aimed at presenting the Christian faith. Like all of them, he is and declares himself a writer, but not necessarily a Catholic writer. Concretely, he is a Catholic who, among other vocations (such as being a professor, husband, and father), also has that of being a writer.