pre-Christian Yule and Saturnalia were late developments of it, and it was never completely assimilated to the Christian faith.
“Merry Christmas (I)” (1946), Northrop Frye on Religion (2000), CW, 4.
Perhaps the answer is that people go through the bother of Christmas because Christmas helps them to understand why they go through the bother of living out their lives the rest of the year. For one brief instant, we see human society as it should and could be.…
“Merry Christmas (II)” (1948), Northrop Frye on Religion (2000), CW, 4.
There is no New Testament evidence whatever about what time of year Jesus was born, and as far as we can see, the Church seems to have been content to take the winter solstice festival from other religions.
“Symbolism in the Bible” (1981–82), Northrop Frye’s Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts (2003), CW, 13.
Christmas season then is a deliberately induced period of chaos & hysteria designed to assume stability after the New Year.
Entry, Notebook 3 (1946–48), 182, Northrop Frye’s Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts (2003), CW, 13.
The world clings to Christmas with a kind of desperation: it is the only traditional festival, apart from a flurry of new hats at Easter, that retains any real hold on ordinary life.
“Merry Christmas (II)” (1948), Northrop Frye on Religion (2000), CW, 4.
Church
If the Sabbath was made for man, the Church was too.
Entry, Notes 53 (1989–90), 212, Northrop Frye’s Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2000), CW, 6.
Law is the expression of temporal authority; justice is law informed by the vision of freedom and equality; the vision of freedom and equality is a steady vision only within the Christian church. Outside the church it is only a vague hope or a fitful glimpse afforded by the lucky chance of a good ruler.
“The Analogy of Democracy” (1952), Northrop Frye on Religion (2000), CW, 4.
We can save ourselves only through an established co-operative church, and if the church ever wakes up to that fact, that will constitute enough of a miracle to get us the rest of the way.
“NF to HK,” 4 Sep. 1933, The Correspondence of Northrop Frye and Helen Kemp, 1932–1939 (1996), CW, 1.
The dilemma the Church put modern man into is this: the Catholic position is that the Church contains the Word: the Protestant is that the Word contains the Church.
Entry, Notebook 32 (late 1946–51), 102, Northrop Frye’s Notebooks on Romance (2004), CW, 15.
The society produced by the gospel is the church, and the church is a community whose members have all been made free and equal by their faith.
“The Return of Eden: Five Essays on Milton’s Epics” (1965), Northrop Frye on Milton and Blake (2005), CW, 16.
If Milton or Blake had joined or founded a church, therefore, they would have lost the real Church, the total vision which is the city of God, and gained a sect.
“Part Three: The Final Synthesis,” Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947, 2004), CW, 14.
The church has the power to save the world when it is itself saved, and the saving power will work largely outside it until it is.
“The Analogy of Democracy” (1952), Northrop Frye on Religion (2000), CW, 4.
As I don’t believe in substantial real presence, I don’t believe anything happens at a church service. I don’t understand the “this do in remembrance of me” aspect of Christianity: it seems silly, & I must think about it.
Entry, 8 Jan. 1950, 25, The Diaries of Northrop Frye: 1942–1955 (2001), CW, 8.
The religious bodies have enough problems of their own, but if they fail to meet the spiritual needs of society, the university will become the only source of free authority, and hence would be almost compelled to slip into the role of a lay church for intellectuals.
“The Ethics of Change: The Role of the University” (1968), Northrop Frye’s Writings on Education (2001), CW, 7.
Churchill, Winston
I had the usual childish fantasies, when very young, of wanting to be a “great man” — fantasies that in our day only Churchill has realized. But Churchill’s greatness was archaic: his funeral really buried that whole conception of greatness as a social ambition.
Entry, Notebook 12 (1968–70), 66, The “Third Book” Notebooks of Northrop Frye, 1964–1972: The Critical Comedy (2002), CW, 9.
Cincinnati
There are more people in Cincinnati than in Shakespeare’s London; but Cincinnati cannot produce genius. It isn’t the capital of anything: no organization of state or nation or anything else with a body comes to a head in it.
Entry, 24 Jan. 1949, 120, The Diaries of Northrop Frye: 1942–1955 (2001), CW, 8.
Cities
The map still shows us self-contained cities like Hamilton and Toronto, but experience presents us with an urban sprawl, which ignores national boundaries and buries a vast area of beautiful and fertile land in a tomb of concrete.
The Modern Century (1967), Northrop Frye on Modern Culture (2003), CW, 11.
Engineers, along with architects and town planners, are deeply involved with the physical appearance of society. And the briefest glance at our society shows a stupefying hideousness and squalor, with the great octopus sprawl of streets and highways and buildings swallowing all the fertility of the nature around us. When this process is applied to the natural environment, we call it pollution: when it is applied to the human environment, we call it development. But whatever we call it, something is badly wrong with the creative power of the society that has produced it.
“Universities and the Deluge of Cant” (1972), Northrop Frye’s Writings on Education (2001), CW, 7.
The amount of mental distress caused by living in an environment which expresses indifference or contempt for the perspectives of the human body is very little studied: one might call it proportion pollution.
“Canada: New World Without Revolution” (1975), Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
The city is the community become conscious: it is to the country what man is to animals. Animals live; man knows that he lives; people live in the country & often live very well, but in the city some additional consciousness comes to life.
Entry, 24 Jan. 1949, 120, The Diaries of Northrop Frye: 1942–1955 (2001), CW, 8.
Washington became a capital because it was in the logical place for one, between the north and the south: Ottawa became a capital because it was not Montreal or Kingston.
“National Consciousness in Canadian Culture” (1976), Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
Citizens
