Postmodernism, Literature and the Future of Theology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction: Religious Thought and Contemporary Critical Theory

   • David Jasper

   Pages 1-6

3. Two Ways to Avoid Tragedy

   • David E. Klemm

   Pages 7-20

4. Tragedy is — Scription Contra-diction

   • Brayton Polka

   Pages 21-59

5. Torn by Desire: Sparagmos in Greek Tragedy and Recent Fiction

   • Robert Detweiler

   Pages 60-77

6. An Apocalypse of Race and Gender: Body Violence and Forming Identity in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

   • T. Mark Ledbetter

   Pages 78-90

7. The Postmodernity of Judas: Religious Narrative and the Deconstruction of Time

   • Stephen Happel

   Pages 91-119

8. Nietzsche’s Theology of History and the Redemption of Postmodernism

   • Bernard Zelechow

   Pages 120-142

9. Theology in the Context of Pluralism and Postmodernity: David Tracy’s Theological Method

   • Werner G. Jeanrond

   Pages 143-163

10. The End of the Story?

    • Dag T. Andersson

    Pages 164-179

11. Back to Literature — and Theology?

    • David E. Klemm

    Pages 180-190

12. Back Matter

    Pages 191-194

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These essays are written by scholars from widely differing disciplines and traditions. Theologians, philosophers, literary critics and historians of ideas approach the question of how the judaeo-Christian tradition of theological reflection has suffered from and will negotiate the emergence of postmodern theory and practice in literature and criticism. Chapters deal with specific texts from Euripides to contemporary fiction, and with the traditions of cultural theory from Nietszche to Benjamin, to Derrida and what David Klemm identifies as the tragedy of present theology.

• critical theory
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• identity
• Jacques Derrida
• Narrative
• postmodernism
• theology
• Tradition

• Centre for the Study of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow, UK

  David Jasper

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