I have concluded that the Kingdom of Men (in LOTR) is meant to act parabolically as the Church, because the Church is no other than the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Thus the Shire derives its character from a forgotten dependence on the Church, which is probably exposed most clearly in the Scouring of the Shire. But I am open for correction in these views.
GIF
The Roots of Day@rootsofday
Help me get further along here, if you've thought about this before: The familiar home that is so well captured in the Shire lacks one aspect that makes any place truly familiar: a church. Without the cultivating force of the church, or even the monastery, so quaint a rustic life as the shire would not be possible. This was a deliberate choice on Tolkien's part, but I don't think I can follow his logic as well as I'd like.
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