This article has two aims. Firstly, it makes an attempt to shed new light onthe representation of sickness in Birgitta Trotzig’s (1929–2011) writings.Secondly, the article, by using its analyses of Trotzig, tries to draw sometheoretical conclusions concerning the possibilities of applying a theology ofpathology in literary studies. While earlier scholars have interpretedTrotzig’s depiction of sickness by means of secular intertexts, the startingpoint of this article is Trotzig’s adopting of Christian anthropology as heruntranscendable hermeneutic horizon. Thus, it is argued, sickness in herwritings should primarily be related to theological contexts. By close readingof a representative text passage, the opening scene of Trotzig’s best knownnovel Dykungens dotter (The Marsh King’s Daughter, 1985), the articleexplores which contexts within Christian theology of sickness that would bespecially fertile for an interpretation of her sickness discourse. The analysesreveal four theological notions of sickness as intertextually present inTrotzig’s narration: Augustine’s concupiscence, Sören Kierkegaard’sdispair, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s decomposition, and EugenDrewermann’s neurosis. The main theoretical conclusions of the analysesare: (a) that the theological notions of sickness to a high degree differ froma ”natural” experience as well as from the biblical sources, (b) that thesenotions can contradict each other and generate conceptual conflicts, and (c)that the notions therefore, when applied in literary studies, demand stronghermeneutic control.