Dr Michael Kirwan SJ
Love's Performance: God, the World, and Dramatic Theology
Abstract: The description of God's interaction with humanity as a 'theodrama' is a powerful trope in contemporary theology. The most prominent example is that of Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theodramatik. Balthasar sees contemporary philosophies converging on the notion of a 'dramatic theology'; his insight is taken up by the theologians of the Innsbruck 'Dramatic Theology project. But the metaphor has been embedded in Christian tradition from the beginning, above all in the 'sacred drama' of Holy Week. The paper will consider the most important attempts to employ the metaphor of drama or theatre in theology. Here we find a full range of possibilities, from the adoption of a five-act structure on the one hand, to exploring improvisation theory on the other. We will look at the reasons why theologians are drawn to a 'dramatic' style, while noting its limitations. One related question, which will be noted rather than resolved, is that of the tragic. Is there an incompatibility between Christianity and tragedy, as some critics would maintain? Or can a theo-drama be constructed which does justice both to theology and to that dimension of human existence which tragedy uniquely elucidates?
Michael Kirwan is an Irish British Jesuit, who taught theology at Heythrop College (University of London) for twenty years, before moving to Ireland. He is currently based at the Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin, where he teaches and researches in theology in the Catholic tradition. His specialist interests include the mimetic theory of René Girard, political theology, and the conversation between theology and literature is rooted in his undergraduate studies in English literature. This has borne fruit in essays on Blake, Shakespeare, Goethe, Thomas Mann, Czesław Miłosz, and others.