The experience of the tragic: Describing it and responding to it theologically

Abstract

This article develops a theological account of tragic experience beyond its colloquial reduction to mere misfortune. Starting from real-life situations rather than literary tragedy or philosophical accounts, it proposes a phenomenology in which the tragic arises from specific constellations of contingency and necessity, disrupting expectations and producing meaninglessness. Theologically, it critiques tendencies to marginalize the tragic through triumphalist readings of creation, redemption, and eschatology. Instead, it reinterprets key doctrines – especially original sin – in relational and structural terms to illuminate the entanglement of human action, ambiguity, and fate. Central is the notion of “Holy Saturday” as the existential locus of traumatic experience, emphasizing accompaniment, lament, and gradual healing rather than premature resolution. The article concludes a theological view at the tragic that is grounded in promise: affirming God’s presence in suffering, the possibility of transformative meaning, and an eschatological hope that does not negate the enduring reality of the tragic.