Not so long ago, most people believed that God would one day end the world. Today, we think that humanity will do it. What this says about our assessment of God and ourselves, I’ll leave it to you to judge. At this point, apocalyptic language has become so prevalent that it has become cliché and we have come to rely on less pedantic substitutes. The ever-reliable word “crisis” can easily be incorporated into any field or area we want to lament (e.g., “the crisis of the church,” “the crisis of higher education,” “the crisis of the humanities,” “the crisis of politics,” etc.). Mark Greif writes, Written It covers this topic extensively.
and, Unprecedentedor civilizationIn this sense, we are not approaching the end of the world as we know it, nor are we facing an unprecedented cultural crisis. No, we are living in a “civilizational moment”. Add to this sobering talk of “cultural collapse”, “decadence” and “collapse”. What is clear is that for many people the prognosis is grim, things are bleak and the future is a source of more anxiety than hope. We cannot afford to sit idly by and watch. Activities.
To those who are inclined to take a tragic view of this election season, I would counter that the Christian view of reality is actually a comedic one.
Against this background, Dr. Mark Devine Assert we Tragic The tragic view of history sees someone like Donald J. Trump in much the same way as Generals George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and William Sherman. “The tragic view requires and calls for periodic assessment of the nature and magnitude of threats to civilization and for extraordinary measures to resist and subdue them,” in other words, “desperate situations call for desperate measures.” According to this tragic view, we are fighting enormous forces, and we are fighting them almost alone. Conflicts between tribes or nations end with the destruction of one side. It is a zero-sum game. To think otherwise is to fool ourselves.
Desperate situations also lead to desperate creative efforts. Turning Trump into King Cyrus and, Dietrich Bonhoeffer would have voted for him.Now there is an attempt to paint him as a ruthless warlord. In effect, these exotic costume changes seem like nothing more than a clever strategy to make sober political expediency look like cold realism. Either way, for the tragic Trump supporters, they will no longer hold their noses and vote. They will step into the polls with grim resignation, knowing that they cannot afford the moral qualms of “voting according to their conscience.” Civilization hangs on the line, after all.
But is that really the case?
To illustrate the point, let’s look at one of the most famous (or infamous) tragic heroes of all time: Oedipus. While the story of Oedipus wasn’t original to Sophocles, the ingenuity of his version is that it unfolds not through the cruel hand of fate overwhelming the hero, but through Oedipus’s discovery and realization that he is, in fact, the goddess of fate. already Fulfilled the prophecy of the Delphic oracle.
Oedipus uses all his heroic qualities — courage, intelligence, perseverance — to uncover the truth, but this heroic quest is his downfall. Noble character is thus confronted with relentless guilt. The little bit of freedom Oedipus claims lies in his ability to face his own miserable condition. It is a deeply moving conclusion that will resonate deeply with anyone who has ever seriously thought about the mysterious relationship between human freedom and moral action. It is also a concept foreign to Christianity.
If we look at the fragile light of history (especially military history), it is hard to argue against the recurrence of the tragic perspective. Great empires rise and fall. Peace is rare, fragile, and accompanied by a great deal of bloodshed. This is what people generally have in mind when they utter phrases like “freedom is not free.” At the moment of civilization, we either face harsh realities or pitch our tents with the utopians and face extinction without any effort. Fortunately, Christians do not have to decide between tragic and utopian visions, between Athens and Arcadia.
In contrast to the noble decoration of tragedies set in royal palaces and blood-stained battlefields, Comedy The piece depicts ordinary people going about their daily tasks in their kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. Naturally, it’s humorous. In the words of Montaigne, “If we sat on the highest throne in the world, we’d still be sitting on our butts.” The fact that the majority of thrones today are made of porcelain only strengthens his point.
However, the greatest feature of comedy is not the humor, but the happy ending. Birds Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s DreamMuch of the pleasure we feel in a great comedy comes from its final, happy ending. While the characters may lack the dignity and grace of Oedipus, unlike him, they are not left with only their flaws at the end of the story. Rather, their redemption is Through Their faults and weaknesses. To Christians, this should sound oddly familiar.
In the Bible we encounter a comical vision of reality. The origins of the nation of Israel are traced back to 90-year-old Sarah. This tiny nation is freed from captivity by a stuttering man who spent 40 years in exile after murdering an Egyptian. Christ, the creator of all, appears before us as a helpless baby and begins to build his church on the rock of Peter, a man who made many mistakes and denied Christ three times. Our Lord’s victory comes not by sword but by cross.
Heroes of faith are entirely lacking in the noble qualities found in tragic characters. Instead, the biblical vision reveals that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak to shame the strong.1 Corinthians 1:27Most importantly, Christian men and women know that this story has a happy ending: the end of the universe when God will judge the living and the dead, wipe away every tear, and make all things new. A wonderful essay Regarding this issue, Daniel Russ argues:
This classic comic plot line, moving from order to chaos and back to order, is a canonical form in the Bible: God’s people begin in a garden in right relationship with God, are corrupted by foolish pride, are redeemed by the unexpected incarnation of God himself, and finally end up in the city where the original garden was.
To those who might take a tragic view of this election season, I would counter that the Christian view of reality is quite comical. We are not locked into a zero-sum game that requires us to temporarily ignore our political opponents and “special measures” and prophetic testimonies. The universe we live in is larger than that, because Christ made it so.
If Christ did not leave us orphans, we need not sacrifice our consciences for political expediency. We can be free to perform our civic duties, knowing that Christ remains on the throne no matter who sits in the Oval Office. A tragic world may be too big for a “third way,” but a comic one is enough.
Certainly, loyalty to Christ and His kingdom does not preclude suffering, but that suffering does not have the last word. While the current situation in our nation is certainly tough, those who belong to Christ are free to live in the light of His promise of a happy ending.
