Jove and Bacchus

The tragedy of paganism is that it must divide the attributes of divinity. Jove’s majesty and Dionysius’ wildness could not abide together in the same being in the pagan mind. And yet that is the God the Christians worship. A God who reigns in omnipotent, terrible gravity, yet who shines in riotous color through every field of wildflowers, and dare I say, every vineyard. We worship a God of riotous grandeur and majestic joy. Thus the Christian can embrace the hushed awe of the sanctuary as well as the bacchanalia exploding on every hillside in creation. Our worship need not be either anemic and cloistered or depraved, for we worship the God of awful celebration.