Catholic ethics: Yes
Catholic theology: outweighed by the other influences in my opinion.
We need to flag down **QtM ** and get him involved.
Captain, I know Tolkien was a fairly devout Catholic and a well educated one. If you read through the Silmarillion, the Book of Unfinished tales and the Histories of Middle Earth, you would probably agree the Catholic influence was minor compared to the influence of the Old Epics.
Jim
I think Stephen Lawhead wants to rise to JRRT/CSL stature- if only I could finish reading just one of the books I have by him! 
I’m pretty sure Frank Peretti realizes he’s nowhere near their level, but he does a good job at his writing (the two DARKNESS books were Americanized simplifications of THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH).
I considered putting down Lawhead but I don’t believe he has been of any interest to academia. I read the Tallyesin (sic?), Merlin, Arthur books. Lots of interesting ideas, impressive stories, realistic world–but somehow just hollow. Perhaps his characters aren’t layered enough, or something. It’s hard to remember his work.
Interesting replies. It would appear that Lewis and Tolkien, though imitated, are truly one of a kind - more accurately, are each one of a kind. It would be interesting to tease out the reasons why each, most especially Lewis, who has no “epic” work to his name to ensure his immortality, has proven to be so enduringly popular, and indeed almost irreplaceable, it would seem.
Perhaps, as CSL would say, people can’t get enough of the “same old thing”, if that same old thing happens to be true, or as close to the truth as only an honest attempt to reach the truth can get.
I have read one or two efforts on the Internet recently which indicate, to me, at any rate, that some “Lewis scholars”, as I note they like to brand themselves, are in danger, in Lewis’s terms, of attending to the fernseed but missing the elephant.
Each, the first piece to a greater extent than the second, falls into the classic trap of telling the reader more about the author than about its avowed subject.
Sure it does. Who else would’ve discovered the Pacific?
Balboa? 
I agree, I read them more a pseudo History than an Epic Fantasy. I thought they were well done but not truly compelling.
Jim