ABSTRACT
The first thinker to recognize the potential political implications of dramatic tragedy was Plato, who famously ejected the poets from his ideal city. The study of Attic tragedy continues to be vital in the present day, however, in the context of a public discourse taking place in the context of a resurgence of nativism, racism, and xenophobia. Here the author draws on two very different recent works: The Tragic Vision of African American Religion by Matthew Johnson (2010) and The Tragic Imagination by Rowan Williams (2016). Though coming from different perspectives, these two thinkers both keep the study of tragedy—and Christian theology—grounded in the concrete world of history and politics, revealing tragedy’s intrinsic resistance to systems of oppression. A theological study of dramatic tragedy can facilitate real-world political engagement by effecting this resistance. Careful study shows that the ancient genre continues to have contemporary transformative political and social potential.
