Between Earth and Heaven by Roger L. Cox (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 527 attempt to make the liturgy correspond more closely to the needs of different people and different countries. For surely, if the Church was able to tolerate variations in the liturgy even within the one city of Rome and moreover was not ashamed of this, then in the same way she will also be able to tolerate the fact that in the future the liturgy will only be universally the same in respect of its fundamental principles, but will differ widely as to the manner in which it is put into practice. pp. 58, 59) The Catholic University of America Washington, D. C. GERARD AusTIN, 0. P. Between Earth and Heaven. By RoGER L. Cox. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969. Pp. 252. $5.95. Roger L. Cox, an Associate Professor of English at DePauw University, takes issue with such formidable adversaries as Karl Jaspers and Reinhold Niebuhr to argue that there is such a thing as " Christian tragedy." In support of his case, he presents six works: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. Those who, following Aristotle, continue to regard tragedy as a dramatic genre might be disposed to take issue with the author's right to derive half of his evidence from the novels of Dostoevsky. However, much has happened to the theory of tragedy since Aristotle delivered his lecture on Poetics; and the discussion of the subject has been a meeting ground for philosophers , anthropologists, clinical psychologists, theologians, sociologists, and literary critics. Indeed, as F. L. Lucas suggests, it has sometimes seemed that all definitions of tragic drama would have to be reduced to a tautology: " Serious drama is a serious representation by speech and action of some phase of human life." And Richard Sewall in The Vision of Tragedy (1952) is quite representative of the willingness of modern criticism to consider the possibility of writing tragedy either in drama or in fiction. In fact, Sewall devoted considerable attention to Dostoevsky's tragic outlook , and it is possible that Professor Cox may be slightly in his debt. Whether or not one can accept the thesis that " Christian tragedy " is a legitimate critical term, depends, in part, upon what one's definition of tragedy is. Recognizing this need for such a definition in the development of his thesis, Cox proposes the following: " A tragedy is a literary work, predominantly somber in tone, in which the main character encounters some significant misfortune for which he himself is partly, though not wholly, responsible." In Cox's view, tragedy deals with "the timeless problem of necessary injustice," and the tragic hero is seen to be involved in a situation in which he makes, or is forced to make, a decision that leads directly to suffering. He is responsible for what he does, but he is not to blame for it. 528 BOOK REVIEWS In the light of this definition, it is possible for Cox to argue that the gospel narratives are tragic. He sees the crucifixion as the " central event " in these narratives and Christ as making a decision that results in his being " partly though not fully responsible for the significant misfortune which he encounters." Yet Cox never really answers his own question as to " whether the resurrection destroys or even significantly diminishes the tragic meaning of Christ's suffering and death." If the central event of the gospel narratives is not the crucifixion by itself but an event with three parts-the last supper, the death on the cross, the resurrection-Cox's argument that the gospels are tragic would seem to be in some difficulty. In any event, Cox feels that the main sources of " Christian tragedy " are not the synoptics but what he calls the Pauline and the Johannine writings. His specific examples of writers of "Christian tragedy "-and one wonders how many others he might have found-are Shakespeare and Dostoevsky. The former is said to be greatly influenced by the" Western" Pauline tradition, while the latter reflects the " Eastern " Johannine outlook. The essence of Cox's thesis is clearly stated in his final chapter, "The Meaning of Christian Tragedy": Let us proceed now to more...