This chapter introduces Terry Eagleton as a significant interlocutor whose work contributes greatly to the consideration of irony in critical perspective and the ways we might speak ironically within culture and politics today. His expansive oeuvre is marked by a distinctly ironic tone, evident both in the structure of his critical method and his literary style. Eagleton’s pervasive sense of irony is introduced by way of his view of human experience animated between intractable differences, such as nature and culture, necessity and freedom, fragility and resilience. He critiques any comprehensive vision or ideological projection that looks beyond our predicament as creatures bound to these dynamics. It is precisely through such insights that he recognises the potential for human growth and progress. Eagleton’s desire for political and social renewal, anticipated ironically through critical attentiveness to the present predicaments of human life, is foregrounded in his consideration of Christian faith. Beyond doctrinal beliefs and rituals, Eagleton highlights Christian faith as a material practice, concerned with real-world needs like food, clothing and shelter, as well as a solidarity that embraces the marginalised—those excluded by current political systems are an ironic sign that gestures toward a radically new future. This metaphorical reading contrasts with a more metonymic approach to Christian faith, in which God’s future is encountered within present materiality and realised eventfully in acts of love.