Monday, May 5, 2014

Quote of the Week - Penelope Lively


"If you don't know something of the biblical narrative you are going to be bewildered by most early art and by innumerable references in English prose and poetry. And if you have not known the King James Version you will not have experienced the English language at its most elegant, its most eloquent.

I am an agnostic who relishes the equipment of Christianity: its mythologies, its buildings, its ceremonies, its music, the whole edifice without which ours would be a diminished world."
(From her book Dancing Fish and Ammonites, p. 128)

2 comments:

George Patsourakos said...

Although non-believers of Christianity may not believe in Christ, many of them still enjoy the beauty and wisdom provided by Christianity, including its buildings, its ceremonies, its music, etc.

Indeed, Christianity provides a whole spectrum of ideas and other phenomena that even atheists tend to marvel.

Alice C. Linsley said...

Very true, George. There is beauty in Christian expressions of art, architecture, music, literature and ceremony.