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The Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay on Festivity and Fantasy
The Feast of Fools A Theological Essay on Festivity and Fantasy Author:Harvey Gallagher Cox Cox's interpretation of contemporary culture and theology examines both the loss and reemergence of festivity and fantasy in Western culture. He evaluates both processes from a theological perspective, defining festivity as the capacity for genuine revelry and joyous celebration and defining fantasy as the faculty for envisioning radically a... more »lternative life situations. He asserts that both are vital to contemporary life and faith; both are a precondition for genuine social transformation.
In a success and money-oriented society we need a rebirth of unapologetically unproductive festivity and expressive celebration. In an age that has quarantined parody and separated politics from imagination, we need a renaissance of social fantasy. It's been said that affluent Westerners have been gaining the whole world while losing their souls. In the face of this Cox affirms the necessity of a resurgence of hope, celebration, liberation and experimentation.
The medieval Feast of Fools, from which he's taken his title, symbolizes both the problem and process. Centuries ago it provided an opportunity for the choirboy to play bishop and for serious townsfolk to mock the stately rituals of church and court. The eventual disappearance of the custom in the 16th century, unlamented if not welcomed by those in authority, illustrates the concerns of this controversial essay. Cox doesn't propose that a medieval practice should be revived. He does argue for a rebirth in our own cultural idiom of what was right and good about the Feast of Fools.
It's likely that this book will become significant in wide circles. It speaks directly to such contemporary movements as the theology of hope, the rapidly disappearing radical theology and the theology of culture. For many it will provide a new perspective on the renewal of religious life and the secular search for religious experience. For others it will function as a window into the experimental laboratories of the "underground church." For everyone it's a refreshing encounter with a wholly new set of perceptive observations about the problems facing us.« less