A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
John IrvingRead
Anyone can be sentimental about the nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection, you’re not a believer." “If you don’t believe in Easter,” Owen Meany said. “Don’t kid yourself—Don’t call yourself a Christian.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that true belief in Christianity hinges on the resurrection celebrated at Easter, rather than just the sentimental feelings associated with Christmas.
In this quote, John Irving, through the character Owen Meany, asserts that while many people may celebrate Christmas and feel sentimental about the nativity story, the core of Christian belief lies in the resurrection of Jesus during Easter. The statement challenges superficial faith, suggesting that genuine belief requires a deeper understanding and acceptance of key tenets of Christianity, particularly the importance of resurrection. Thus, it distinguishes between those who merely participate in holiday celebrations out of tradition and those who truly embrace the beliefs that lie at the heart of their faith.
Themes
EasterResurrectionChristianityFaithBelief
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a sermon to emphasize the importance of believing in the resurrection.
More from John Irving
All quotes →No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.
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It's not very interesting to establish sympathy for people who, on the surface, are instantly sympathetic. I guess I'm always attracted to people who, if their lives were headlines in a newspaper, you might not be very sympathetic about them.
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It is an important distinction to note that she looked not only as if she had taken good care of herself, but that she had good reason to have done so. (...) She looked to be in such total possession of her life that only the most confident men could continue to look at her if she looked back at them. Even in bus stations, she was a woman who was stared at only until she looked back.
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I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
John IrvingRead
I will tell you what is my overriding perception of the last twenty years: that we are a civilization careening toward a succession of anticlimaxes – toward an infinity of unsatisfying, and disagreeable endings.
John IrvingRead
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