On Christmas

"A place of blood and terror is not the only place where God can be found, but it is the only kind of place where God can be born. For God can only be born in the context of God's wrath. The wrath of God is not some senile ghost throwing a tantrum in the sky: the wrath of God is the revelation to man of the hell that man has made of his life on this earth. When we speak of the death of Christ as appeasing or atoning for the wrath of the Father, we mean that the death of Christ on the cross makes it possible for man to see a few other things besides hell."

--Northrop Frye, "The Leap in the Dark," in Northrop Frye on Religion, eds. Alvin A. Lee and Jean O'Grady (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), p. 301.

Comments

  1. Craig L. AdamsJune 8, 2010 at 9:04 AM

    That's a very interesting quote. Thanks. I stole it and linked to you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fencing BearJune 8, 2010 at 9:19 AM

    I love Frye, he is so spot on.

    ReplyDelete

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