Tragic Heroes

Abstract

Mighty men of heroic stature lie behind the Christian tradition, as any inspection of our great cathedrals will demonstrate. Patriarchs, Moses, judges, kings, and prophets pair evangelists, apostles, martyrs, missionaries, rulers. Not all of them suffer or die violently, but their merit is generally weighed in terms of sacrifice, of self-transcendence, of submission to the divine will. The iconography and the sculptures commemorate these figures, and the liturgies celebrate their witness and appeal to their immortal presences to intercede on our behalf. Thus in the Christian tradition the past is not past, and, just as the Athenian stage re-enacted the greatness of the dead, so Christian ritual and recital resurrect the precursors and followers of Christ. Passover and Atonement ceremonies passed from the Jewish Temple to the universal Church ensuring memorials at the altar and in communities all over the world.