A Sense of the Tragic in a Christian Theology of Freedom

Abstract

For many Christian theologians and non-Christian theorists about Christianity, tragedy has no serious place in a Christian conception of the world; at best, tragedy is an episode overcome by the triumph of resurrection. Drawing on Karl Rahner's theology of freedom, this article argues that including a sense of the tragic in a Christian conception of the world can both undermine a saccharine theology immune to the threats of contingent history and, paradoxically, be a means of reengaging a Christian theology of hope, understood as commitment to the world.