Tragedy and the sovereignty of God: Christian literary criticism and the concept of tragedy

Abstract

A Christian approach to literature is easily confused with a theological approach. There are many dangers implicit in such an approach. Sallie McFague TeSelle says the following about theologians who presume to violate the bounds of both theology and literature by attempting literary criticism: “There is no reason to suppose that those trained in theology, or philosophy for that matter, are likely to possess, what is essential to the practice of literary criticism, that ‘sensitiveness of the intelligence’ described by Matthew Arnold as equivalent to conscience in moral matters. A theological training seems to have a disabling effect and has subsequently to be struggled against when literary criticism is the concern.” (TeSelle 1966:4).