Easter as Celebration of Absence

Terry Eagleton argues that Easter is organized around an absence (the empty tomb) rather than a representable event, and that this absence resists being turned into political icons or tidy images. He uses the episode of Mary Magdalene and the theological prohibition on graven images to show how the resurrection’s 'absent' character undercuts attempts to possess or weaponize God for social power. — Seeing religious festivals as built around absence changes how we understand religious authority, witness, and the political instrumentalization of faith in public life.