2 - Freedom and indifference

Summary

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

(ephesians 5:21)

A theological concentration on drama like the one undertaken here sharply raises the question of freedom. More specifically, it raises the question of (i) how Christian life manifests freedom – often witnessed to in the lives and examples of the saints; (ii) how the sphere of the Church can foster and encourage such freedom, inviting people into it and making it possible in each new generation; and (iii) how such freedom relates to the ultimate destiny of all things. These interlocking dogmatic ‘themes’ can be summarized – in a more or less conventional theological way – as (i) the theology of Christian mission, (ii) the doctrine of the Church, and (iii) the theology of history and the doctrine of eschatology (we might say, as we have said before: the cast, the stage and the action). Any serious treatment of the use of drama in theology will soon be propelled into a discussion of these ‘themes’. They are certainly ever-present in the theodramatics of von Balthasar, the importance of whose role as a key conversation partner for this book has been advanced decisively in the previous chapter.

But identifying their theological content must not blind us to the fact that these interlocking aspects of the question of freedom represent issues equally present to other investigations – investigations which are perhaps less immediately identifiable as ‘theological’.