Buffoons and Sacred Madness

A Reading of Harvey Cox’s “Harlequin Christ” According to Monster Theory

Abstract

This article sets out to make a contemporary re-reading of the book The Feast of Fools, by theologian Harvey Cox, to launch new developments on the theme of the division of society, proposed by the philosopher Leszek Kolakowski, between the maintainers of order (priests) and their critics (buffoons or jesters). Within a Christian framework, as a counter hypothesis to some of the best-known theologies of the death of God, in full force in the mid-20th century, we can infer from Cox’s interpretation that, where there is festivity and fantasy, God cannot be dead – and we’re not just talking about sacred dances, rituals or religious celebrations. After establishing the epistemological basis of my arguments, and recognizing that the theologies of the death of God are different in our times, I present the specific objectives of this article and, consequently, the outcomes I intend to achieve, through a bibliographical and exploratory study: (1) to discuss the possibility of the carnivalization of everyday life being continuous, precisely due to the force and action of the buffoons, and not just sporadic (for example, during carnivals); (2) to understand the act of comicality and laughter as possibilities of redemption, beyond all the seriousness or sobriety typical (and even expected) of churches, especially Protestant ones; and (3) to analyze, according to Monster Theory, a hybrid Christ – a human body crucified with an ass’s head (the Alexamenos Graffito) – which is the most original section of this article, as an opening or invitation to holy madness.