French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Forthomme, Théologie des émotions, structurée par l'expérience théâtrale.
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Bernard Forthomme

Theology of Emotions, Structured by Theatrical Experience.

Paris: Cerf, coll. Théologies, 2008.

EAN 9782204082884

24€

232 p.

Publisher's overview:

Emotions cannot be reduced to violent outbursts—there are also gentle emotions—nor to a superficial reaction to events that would subsequently require elaboration not only through more lasting and complex feelings, but through reason and will.
Yet, if we consider the memorial, revealing, or exploratory power of emotions, it becomes clear that they pave unprecedented paths for voluntary action and logical elucidation. This book strives to decode this tension between memory and exploratory force, as it grants emotion a founding authority and a frankness that engages the entire being toward the future. It offers the grip of jubilation or terror to support the course of life in its adventures, the disjointed sequence of its journey, and its decisive moments.
Emotions allow us to reconstruct not only a past world, a lost universe, but a promise akin to the starry sky and the inner poem, which stimulates our boldness or risk-taking. Emotions are not merely fleeting. Their very passage binds us. Emotions are the expression of an alliance between inner verses, the flesh, boundless aspiration, and freedom.
The aim here is to suggest this rhythm: sometimes the call of adventure urges and vibrates most intensely, while at other times the will to respond to what happens grows more powerful. At times, adventure carries us irresistibly, while the alliance seems weak and freedom erased; at other times, conversely, freedom appears most vigorous and adventure is stamped with uncertainty and fragility.
I follow this respiration, the essence of this existence known by Him who searches minds and hearts, the God of adventure and directed freedom! In the first part of this research, the vigor of emotion is grasped primarily through dramatic poetry in its theatrical form. Consequently, emotion is regulated here less within the heart of an adventure than through the interplay of volition, within behaviors, surrenders, and resistances to destiny.
Free will gains all the more relief as it risks itself openly in the trials of the most subtle insinuations, as well as the most desperate insolences and the enigmas of true joy.

Bernard Forthomme, Franciscan, teaches at the Jesuit Faculties of Paris (Centre Sèvres).

Table of Contents:

Foreword. Emotion at the Heart of Theology 11 Is theology closer to tragedy than philosophy? 11 Tragic emotion and equivocal speech 25 Comic emotion 30 1. Burial and Its Hindrance 41 Entrusting the body to the elements 41 The root of acedia 43 Deprivation of burial 48 2. Repetition 57 The cruelty of indefiniteness 57 Modalities of repetition 60 Bible and theater: bibliodrama distinct from the theatrical 65 The antinomy of tragic theologism and biblical theology 66 The contention between ceremonial and exclusive worship 68 3. Theatrical Speed and Modern Emotions 81 Material and formal speed 82 Theater and the idols of the theater 84 From the physics of speed to futurism 87 Critique of speed 88 The pathology of speed 91 Speed as good news 94 The prostitutes' comedy \u00ab Hurrencomedie \u00bb 97 Foci of resistance and discernment 101 4. The Theater of the World, the Subject, and Persons 105 Theater of the world 105 Transition from the \u00ab theatrum mundi \u00bb to the question of theatrical, idealistic, or psychosocial roles 106 Is the contestation of roles manic, and hysterical or even melancholic assent? 108 The theater of the world as scientific or philosophical language 110 Crisis of the theater of the world 115 Correspondence of democracy, athleticism, rhetoric, philosophy, and tragedy 118 Morphology and ardent form in the face of force and intensity 122 From objection to mission 128 Moving beyond role and mission: the singular confrontation with death and joy 131 5. The Crisis of Spectacle 135 Critique of spectacles 135 Christological and trinitarian configurations 142 The tragic disunion 148 6. Religious Orders and Theater 157 Use of the theatrical form in the Benedictine world 157 Theater distinct from cult and rite 157 Integration of a dramatic play into the Easter liturgy 164 Franciscan Uses of Theater 172 From multiple personality to the person 172 Theater and utopia 178 \u00ab Exempla \u00bb 180 The Theater of the Society of Jesus and the Crisis of the Cathartic Model: The Economic Defense and Illustration of Emotions 188 Brief note on theater in Carmel and the Order of Preachers 199 7. From the Theater of Cruelties to that of Cruelty 201 From the Dantesque to Célinean gasping 201 Critique of theatrical analogy 208 The descent into Hell 217 Epilogue. The Principle of \u00ab Always More \u00bb 223

The intersection of theology, dramatic poetry, and affective life has long occupied thinkers examining the human condition and spiritual expression. Within the broader tradition of Christian thought and philosophy, the relationship between passionate experience and rational articulation remains a subject of sustained inquiry. Scholars frequently investigate how dramatic forms convey deep existential states, bridging the gap between fleeting sensory reactions and enduring ethical commitments.

This volume examines the tension between memory and exploratory force, granting emotion a founding authority that engages the entire being. The author explores dramatic poetry in its theatrical form, touching upon topics such as the legacy of the theatrum mundi, the critique of spectacles, and the integration of theatrical elements within various religious orders including Benedictine, Franciscan, and Jesuit traditions. Readers interested in the intersection of dramatic arts, theology, and the history of religious life may find this work relevant to their pursuits.