Tragedy Under Grace: Reinhold Schneider on the Experience of the West

A study of the German Catholic writer Reinhold Schneider (1903-1958), published by Hegner in 1953 (262 pages); Balthasar revised and enlarged it as Nochmals - Reinhold Schneider (Johannes Verlag, 1991), the text behind the English Tragedy Under Grace (Ignatius Press, 1997). According to the Community of Saint John, it follows Schneider's long exploration of the relation between Christian holiness and temporal power, and his sense that worldly rule and the Kingdom of God cannot be joined 'from below'. The last word of the book is not tragedy but obedience: a surrender that leaves God free to give the synthesis from above, as a way of the cross. It is one of several studies of single writers, with his books on Bernanos and on Martin Buber.