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As far as I recall, it's a question of the total dissolution of all notions of an other-worldly salvation. During those years this was going on in me all the time and being replaced by a sense of the holiness - to put it clumsily - to be found in man himself. The only holiness which really exists. A holiness wholly of this world. And I suppose that's what the final sequence tries to express. The notion of love as the only thinkable form of holiness. At the same time another line of development in my idea of God begins here, one that has perhaps grown stronger over the years. The idea of the Christian God as something destructive and fantastically dangerous, something filled with risk for the human being and bringing out in him dark destructive forces instead of the opposite.

Ingmar Bergman#32

FaithHumanityTheologyGodLoveSalvationSpirituality

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author shifts from other-worldly salvation to finding holiness in human love and the risks of a dangerous God.
In plain terms
Holiness is found in human love, not divine salvation.
What can you take from it?
Human connection holds more spiritual value than abstract salvation.

Where it applies

  • seeking spiritual meaning
  • debating theology
  • writing art

Putting it to work

  • exploring human divinity
  • questioning dogma

Questions to consider

  • Where do you find true holiness?
  • Is God a source of risk or comfort?

Another view

This view contradicts traditional religious doctrines of salvation.

More from Ingmar Bergman

  1. I've never been much smitten by Catholicism. I've never been committed to any religious dogma of any sort. ... For years the Catholics had me on their blacklis…

    Permalink to quote #31
  2. Well, we're grasping for two things at once. Partly for communion with others - that's the deepest instinct in us. And partly, we're seeking security. By const…

    Permalink to quote #33
  3. To the fanatical believer physical and spiritual suffering is beside the point, compared with salvation. That is why, to him, everything happening around him i…

    Permalink to quote #30

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