How Did Tolkien Write Great Books?

Since roughly 1999, the scholarly and academic community surrounding J. R. R. Tolkien has been deeply divided. The divide comes from those on one side who emphasize Tolkien’s scholarship, his intense love and knowledge of languages, and the vast number of sources Tolkien drew upon to create his massive mythology. Tolkien was Catholic, they begrudgingly admit, but one should not focus on that. Theirs is an essentially secular Tolkien who also happened to be Catholic.