Northrop Frye on Religion

by Frye, Northrop; O'Grady, Jean; Lee, Alvin A.

• ISBN13: 9780802079206
• ISBN10: 0802079202
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

The late Northrop Frye is Canada's best-known literary and cultural critic, and one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century. During his lifetime, Frye developed a profoundly religious epistemology that informed and infused much of what he wrote. In bringing together his writings on the Bible and religion, this volume offers many keys to the dynamic essence of Frye's thought. Well-organized, insightfully introduced, and carefully edited, this scholarly, annotated edition covers nearly the full range of Frye's intensive intellectual work on religion. (The Great Code and Words with Power will be published in separate volumes of the collected edition.) The writings presented here span a period of fifty-seven years and range from prayers to convocation addresses. Although remarkably diverse in form and content, they reveal the splendid coherence of Frye's vision. This is a quintessential volume in the Collected Works, indispensable to all who have been inspired by Frye's work. In it we find the brilliant and often unorthodox record of a great mind imaginatively open to the transforming power of the Bible, and open also to what William Blake called "the human form divine."

Author Biography

The late Northrop Frye was a professor in the Department of English at Victoria College, University of Toronto. ALVIN A. LEE is Professor and President Emeritus, McMaster University and Associate Fellow, Victoria College, University of Toronto. Jean O'Grady is associate editor of the Collected Works of Northrop Frye at Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Credits and Sources	xv
Abbreviations	xvi
Introduction	xvii
On the Bible and Human Culture
Pistis and Mythos	3	(7)
History and Myth in the Bible	10	(13)
The Meaning of Recreation: Humanism in Society	23	(12)
Creation and Recreation	35	(48)
The Double Mirror	83	(8)
Repetitions of Jacob's Dream	91	(13)
The Bride from the Strange Land	104	(13)
The Mythical Approach to Creation	117	(16)
Crime and Sin in the Bible	133	(14)
The Bible and English Literature	147	(11)
On the Bible	158	(8)
The Double Vision: Language and Meaning in Religion	166	(73)
The Double Vision of Language	167	(15)
The Double Vision of Nature	182	(15)
The Double Vision of Time	197	(16)
The Double Vision of God	213	(26)
On Special Occasions
The Freshman and His Religion	239	(5)
Merry Christmas (I)	244	(2)
So Many Lost Weekends	246	(2)
Merry Christmas?	248	(1)
Merry Christmas (II)	249	(2)
Merry Christmas (III)	251	(2)
The Church: Its Relation to Society	253	(15)
Man and the Sabbath	268	(2)
The Analogy of Democracy	270	(8)
At a Memorial Service for Deceased Students	278	(2)
Baccalaureate Sermon	280	(7)
Symbols	287	(3)
Funeral Service for Virginia Knight	290	(3)
Sermon in Merton College Chapel	293	(3)
Stanley Llewellyn Osborne	296	(3)
The Leap in the Dark	299	(7)
Wisdom and Knowledge	306	(5)
On Christmas	311	(7)
Wedding of Patricia Russell and Andrew Binnie	318	(3)
Substance and Evidence	321	(7)
Memorial Service for Mrs. Jean Haddow	328	(4)
A Breath of Fresh Air	332	(6)
Baccalaureate Service (I)	338	(1)
Funeral Service for Jean Gunn	339	(4)
Baccalaureate Service (II)	343	(1)
The Dialectic of Belief and Vision	344	(16)
To Come to Light	360	(7)
On Lent	367	(4)
Baccalaureate Service (III)	371	(1)
Baccalaureate Service (IV)	372	(1)
Undated Prayers	373	(14)
Notes	387	(20)
Emendations	407	(4)
Index	411