In 2010, the festival Divinamente Roma will take place for the third consecutive year and Divinamente New York will take place for the second consecutive year.

The theme of both festivals this year is the 'Fear of God' - fear and trepidation, then comfort, acceptance, and peace.

Men may attribute to their gods a punitive, vindictive, and even bloodthirsty character. In His name they punish, kill, and torture. One wonders what divinity would want human unhappiness and conflict? Tradition shows that there is also a belief in a loving and reassuring god who, as a bearer of justice, protects the weak by punishing wrongdoers and destroying enemies. Thus over the centuries, the warrior god–a harsh father, has overshadowed the image of a loving and motherly god who is good and tolerant by nature. If the god who forgives and comforts does not fully satisfy the human need for protection; that reassurance may be sought in the god who brings justice to enemies.

Songs, prayers, myths and drama often express human dismay at the unknowable and terrifying force of a strong and immense will that unfolds without taking human beings into account. This fear, this human frailty, fills endless pages of the relationship between man and God. Fear and trepidation are feelings that men of faith have sought to provoke in the faithful and the unfaithful. The violence of God – or of religions – has crossed the earth corrupting its origin of salvation. Words of peace become instruments of war; religious signs become the flags of armies; and words of compassion and understanding become war cries. Yet the search for peace is in every heart.

Six different productions will be presented in six different NYC venues including, among others, the Rubin Museum of Art, the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center, the Centro Primo Levi (Center for Jewish History), etc.