Visions and Faces of the Tragic: The Mimesis of Tragedy and the Folly of Salvation in Early Christian Literature

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Despite the pervasive early Christian repudiation of pagan theatrical art, especially prior to Constantine, this monograph demonstrates the increasing attention of late-ancient Christian authors to the genre of tragedy as a basis to explore the complexities of human finitude, suffering, and mortality in relation to the wisdom, justice, and providence of God. The book argues that various Christian writers, particularly in the post-Constantinian era, were keenly devoted to the mimesis, or imaginative re-presentation, of the tragic dimension of creaturely existence more than with simply mimicking the poetics of the classical Greek and Roman tragedians. It analyses a whole array of hermeneutical, literary, and rhetorical manifestations of "tragical mimesis" in early Christian writing, which, capitalizing on the elements of tragedy already perceptible in biblical revelation, aspired to deepen and edify Christian engagement with multiform evil and with the extreme vicissitudes of historical existence. Early Christian tragical mimetics included not only interpreting (and often amplifying) the Bible's own tragedies for contemporary audiences, but also developing models of the Christian self as a tragic self, revamping the Christian moral conscience as a tragical conscience, and cultivating a distinctively Christian tragical pathos. The study culminates in an extended consideration of the theological intelligence and accountability of "tragical vision" and tragical mimesis in early Christian literary culture, and the unique role of the theological virtue of hope in its repertoire of tragical emotions. Cover Series page Visions and Faces of the Tragic: The Mimesis of Tragedy and the Folly of Salvation in Early Christian Literature Copyright Dedication Preface and Acknowledgments Contents List of Abbreviations 1: Excavating Tragical Perspectivesin Early Christianity: Trajectories of Inquiry and Interpretive Challenges Tragical Vision in early Christian Literature: Preliminary Considerations Tragedy: Form, Reception, Interpretation, and Cultural Utility Tragedy in Roman Culture Tragedy, Philosophy, and Life The Grand Complication: Early and Sustained Christian Aversion to Theatrical Art Incipient Polemics Transitional Responses: Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea Maturing Critical Engagement of the Theatre and Tragedy Paths into Christian Tragical Mimesis 2: Tragical Mimesis and Biblical Interpretation I: Primitive Tragedies in Genesis The Mimetic and Dramatic Dimensions of Interpretation The Dynamics of Mimesis Dramatic Interpretation of Scripture Theorizing (Contemplating) the Tragic in Genesis Adam and Eve’s Fall and “Recognition” Tragic Sibling Rivalries Cain and Abel Jacob and Esau: Tragical Comedy? 3: Tragical Mimesis and Biblical Interpretation II: Exposing and Expounding the Tragic in Sacred History The Undoing of Ancient Judges and Kings The Disastrous Saga of Jephthah and His Daughter Samson: A Tragic Downfall? Saul as a Tragic Hero Job's Reversal of Fortune The Tragic in the New Testament King Herod and the Holy Innocents The Demise of John the Baptist Tragic Villains: Judas Iscariot, Ananias, and Sapphira Conspectus: Tragical Mimesis in Biblical Interpretation 4: The Tragic Christian Self: Three Late-Ancient Profiles Lives and Selves Gregory Nazianzen's Profile of the Tragic Christian Self Gregory’s Depiction of His Own Life as a Tragedy Gregory’s Objectification of the Tragic Christian Self “The Nothingness that is all I Am”: Tragic Selfhood as Shared By John Chrysostom and His soul-Mate Olympias Augustine of Hippo: The Tragic Self, Fallen and Distened in Time Approaching the Self and Its Fallenness in Augustine The Tragic Self Scattered in Time Conspectus: Comparing Tragic Selves 5: Tragical Conscience: Contemplating the Faces and Bodies of Tragedyin the Foreground of the Church Tragical Vision and Christian Moral Conscience Face and Bodies of Tragedy I: The Indigent and the Diseased Faces and Bodies of Tragedy II: Parasites, Society's Tragic Comics Faces and Bodies of Tragedy III: Marrieds and Ascetics Faces and Bodies of Tragedy IV: Unbelieving Jews Conspectus: Christian Tragical consceince 6: Tragical Pathos: The Expanding Christian Repertoire of Tragical Emotions Emotions and Moral Vision The Classi Tragical Emotions "Cleansed" and Reeducated Fear Retrained and Recontextualized Re-scripting Tragical Pity as Christian Mercy Re-scripting Mercy with Empathy Emotions of Tragical Sorrow The Gamut of Grief and Melancholy Compunction and the “Gift of Tears” Conspectus: Tragical Conscience and Tragical Emotions 7: The Theological Scope of Early Christian Tragical Vision Traigical Vision and Mimesis: A Nascent Theological Artform in Early Christianity Tragical Vision through a Theodramatic Lens Theodramatic Perspective: Contemplation (θεωρία)and Performance (πρᾶξις) Plotting the Cosmic Tragedy and Its Resolution A “Play of Freedoms” The Theological intelligence and Accountability of early christian Tragical Vision Identifying and Authenticating the Tragic Wisdom, Providence, and the Artful Flirtation with Necessity and Fate The Limited Function of Theodicy Salvation's Folly: Where Tragedy and Comedy Meet Epilogue: Hope and the Christian Tragical Pathos Select Bibliography General Index Index of Scriptural References