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Document Details : Title: 'Tragic' and 'Comic' Suffering Author(s): JANSEN, Henry Journal: Studies in Interreligious Dialogue Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Date: 2005 Pages: 232-239 DOI: 10.2143/SID.15.2.2004106 Abstract : This article looks at the recent emphasis in Christian theology on a “tragic” view of suffering, proposed as an alternative to the traditional Christian “comic” view of suffering. The article first analyzes the concerns of those theologians who advocate this view and expressed agreement with these concerns, insofar as too simplistically tying suffering to sin is bad pastoral practice and can remove the terror of suffering. The article then turns to comedy, in order to analyze its approach to suffering. Comedy stresses human responsibility and the relativization of suffering. Much suffering arises from human foibles and/or sin and comedy brings this to the fore. Comedy relativizes suffering by not allowing it to have the last word in life and alerting us to other aspects. The “tragic” and “comic” aspects of suffering need to be held in balance with each other. |
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