Kathleen Sands here mounts a trenchant and original critique of Christian theology's account of evil and tragedy. Contemporary experience is, she says, "riddled through and through with tragedy and tragic conflict." Yet Christian theology still lives in a "paradise," denying the irreplaceable loss and irresolvable conflict that are central and undeniable features of our time.
With a sure and sharp grasp of both the Christian tradition and the postmodern situation, Sands faults mainstream and feminist theologies for failing to take evil seriously, for failing to recognize the inescapably tragic character of life. Moreover, she finds this true not only of reform or revisionist feminist theologies (such as Rosemary Ruether's) but also of more radical, Goddess thealogies (such as Carol Christ's). She urges instead entry into the actual world as seen in women's religious experience. And she constructs evocative proposals for how a sensitivity to the tragic could enhance the power and credibility of feminist theology. "The wound of tragedy," she says, "carries clues about the openings and vulnerabilities that define our moral