Northrop Frye's Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

This book, though unified by Frye’s fascination with the Bible, in
fact divides itself into two distinct parts that tend to appeal to
decidedly different readerships. The longest section (approximately
two-thirds of the whole) consists of transcriptions of various notebooks
kept by Frye mainly while planning his first major book on the Bible,
The Great Code. It contains a great many incidental comments that are of
relevance to his books on secular literature, and others with
biographical interest. But for the most part we find him agonizing over
the organization of his book, jotting down digests of books read for the
purpose, and generally working out his (often heterodox) opinions. Vital
for specialist scholars, this section has comparatively little interest
for general readers.

The second section, however, is a very different matter. It is well
known that, for many years, Frye taught an undergraduate course on the
Bible, begun after he complained about the difficulty of teaching Milton
to students with inadequate religious knowledge. This course developed
through the years; what is printed here is the text for a series of
videotapes in 1981–2. Frye insisted that all his later work was
directed towards general readers, and this is basically true, but these
lectures may well prove more accessible for many than The Great Code,
Words with Power, or even The Double Vision. After a statement of basic
principles he goes on to discuss the main sections of the Bible from
Genesis to Revelation. Though fundamentalists will be outraged, and even
the more conventionally pious may be startled if not shocked,
open-minded readers will find substantial food for thought, lucidly
expressed. His discussion of Job is especially enlightening, perhaps his
most profound and sustained literary commentary on a single text.
Significantly, it takes the form of an interpretative sermon.

As usual in this series, the editing is exemplary. It is to be hoped
that the “academic” presentation will not prevent these lectures
from reaching the readership that would most benefit from them. They
deserve to appear in a separate volume.