Upload
daurade
View
214
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 1/25
“Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed
in the Risen Holy Fool”
By John W. Morehead
“His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were likeblazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace. His face was like the sun
shining in all its brilliance…”
– St. John’s vision of the Son of Man in Revelation 1:14-15a
“That which we seek when wide-eyed we came
As virgins entranced towards this huge burning flameStill flickers with hope! Our embers ignite
Rekindled by joy each year we unite.”1
– Poem by “Burner” Constance Hull
Abstract: The alternative heterotopic community of Bur ning Man festival demonstrates elements of human experience that can be interpreted as signals of transcendence. I n a post-
modern context, holy f oolishness provides an appropriate motif for engaging thi s communi ty
regarding these expressions of the sacred. Jesus as Holy F ool embodies divine wisdom in the
context of f estivity, overcomes the abusive powers of author i ty, and unveil s himself as the
Apocalyptic M an Ablaze off eri ng us the gif t wholeness and reconnection wi th the divine.
1 http://www.burningman.com/blackrockcity_yearround/tales/constance2.html
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 2/25
2
Introduction
I first heard of the Burning Man festival outside Reno in the Black Rock Desert of
Nevada through newspaper articles and the Internet2 about five years ago. I was
immediately intrigued, not only by the size of the crowds that attend each year (near
40,000 for the 2006 event), but also by the reputation the festival has received in press
accounts. It is not uncommon to find nudity, sexual experimentation, and drug use as
prevalent themes in treatments of Burning Man in the popular media. Unfortunately,
many evangelicals are either unaware of the festival’s existence, or they too share in the
popular media’s fixation on some of the festival’s more salacious elements, which
represents only a fraction of what takes place and which does not represent the essence of
the significance of the meanings that can be taken away from an analysis of this event.
After studying this festival for several years on popular and academic levels, I had
the opportunity to attend and participate for the first time in 2006. I found the festival as
challenging as it was intriguing, even after my preparations through previous study, and
my other missions research and activities among religious and spiritual subcultures that
tend to unsettle many conservative evangelicals. From blinding dust storms and extremes
in weather between day and night, to the social inversion and experimentation that
playfully mocked aspects of American culture, to the prevalent nudity, to the amazing art
expressed in numerous forms, to the incredibly festive nightlife, Burning Man challenges
the senses as well as traditional sensibilities.
Space limitations and the missional apologetic focus of this paper preclude
lengthy discussion of the meaning of the festival, but this background is important to an
understanding of the context in which the missional apologetic is placed. This paper will
2 The official Burning Man website can be found at www.burningman.com.
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 3/25
3
begin with a summary of the festival in order to understand this context, and will then
discuss the cultural context of engagement. I will then begin to sketch the contours of a
form of theological and apologetic engagement that draws upon sociology and
anthropology. I will look at the significance of festival and festivity, and finally, I will
provide an apologetic approach that draws upon the motif of the holy fool in post-
modernity, and how the story of Jesus as holy fool who brings divine wisdom might be
communicated through this motif.
Burning Man Interpretive Summary
How should Burning Man be interpreted? What is the meaning or meanings of the
Burning Man festival? As mentioned above this is an important starting point in a
discussion of missional apologetic engagement. The festival has been described by its
creators as “an annual art festival and temporary community based on radical self
expression and self-reliance,” but even with this self -definition its founders and
participants desire “to keep the event free from the prison of interpretation, explanation,
and the insidious net of Meaning” (Davis 2005, 15). Even so, it is possible to apply
various academic disciplines in order to arrive at an interdisciplinary perspective on the
event from an outsider’s (etic) perspective, but one that does so with an eye toward a
sympathetic insider’s (emic) concerns.
A review of sociological and anthropological concepts such as Hakim Bey’s
Temporary Autonomous Zone (Bey 1991), and Victor Turner’s notions of liminality and
liminoid experiences resulting in strong social bonds of communitas (Turner 1969), leads
to an interpretation of Burning Man as a place where ritual and festivity create a
community which functions as “a liminoid counterworld of permission, [and where]
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 4/25
4
participants experiment with desired sources of authenticity as a means of (re)creating
their identities” (St. John 2000, 177; emphasis in original). This festive counter -world
experiment serves as “an alternative cultural heterotopic community, that is, an alternate
social gathering invested with multiple meanings” (Ibid., 229; emphasis in original).
Within this heterotopic community participants create and discover meaning and purpose
through ritual and art and thus achieve new understandings of self and community.3
S pace limitations preclude sufficient “unpacking” of the summary above, but the
interested reader may refer to the longer discussion available in my previous paper on this
topic.
4
Cultural Context of Engagement
With a summary of the meaning of Burning Man in mind we turn our attention to
how this alternative community might best be missionally and apologetically engaged by
evangelicals. At the outset we must acknowledge that this community poses several
challenges to the evangelical subculture, and here two primary and related areas must be
taken into account.
First, in many ways Burning Man represents a counter-cultural reaction against
facets of modernity and Christendom. In my application above of St. John’s observations
related to the Australian ConFest community, Burning Man represents a counter -world
and counter -community that consciously creates an alternative in opposition to aspects of
modernity, including Christendom, which have been tried and found wanting.
3 Explorations of other academic interpretations of Burning Man may be found in Lee Gilmore, “Theater in
a Crowded Fire: Spirituality, Ritualization, and Cultural Performativity at the Burning Man Festival.” Ph.D.
diss., Graduate Theological Union, 2005; and Lee Gilmore & Mark Van Proyen (eds), AfterBurn:
Reflections on Burning Man (Albuquerque, NM: The University of New Mexico Press, 2005).4 John W. Mor ehead, “Burn, Baby, Burn, Christendom Inferno: Burning Man and the Festive Immolation
of Christendom Culture and Modernity,” unpublished paper for the Summer Missions Project at Salt Lake
Theological Seminary available electronically at
http://www.lop45.org/forum/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=32&PN=1 .
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 5/25
5
(Regardless of whether Christianity has been properly understood this is the common
perception of many at Burning Man and our engagement with this alternative culture
must begin with the perceptions of our audience rather than the perceptions Christians
may hold by contrast.) Thus, any missional engagement with Burning Man must take this
counter-modernity and counter-Christendom ethos into account if it is to have any hopes
of communicating within this context.5
Second and related to the context of counter-modernity and counter-Christendom,
Burning Man expresses itself within a cultural context that exhibits a decidedly post-
modern and post-Christendom approach to spirituality. Christianity continues to play a
significant role in American culture, and may have been the dominant religion in
America and the Western world in the past, but in recent decades there has been a
“declining influence of religion – particularly Christianity” (Heelas & Woodhead 2005,
1). This has come about through a secularization of the West which in turn has led to a
spiritual re-enchantment6 process. This re-enchantment involves the preference for
spirituality rather than religion, and is characterized by an emphasis upon an
individualized, subjective, and eclectic spiritual quest. In this environment of the post-
modern spirituality seeker, Christianity is perceived negatively as a dogmatic institution
rather than a vibrant spirituality whose adherents have often failed to live up to the
moralizing they present to the culture. In reaction, many Burning Man participants have
either rejected Christianity outright, or consider it of no consequence as a viable option in
creating a spirituality suited for the challenges of the twenty-first century. This post-
5 John Drane discusses many of the implications of cultural change for the faith of Christians within post-
modernity in Faith in a Changing Culture: Creating Churches for the Next Century (London: Marshall
Pickering, 1997); and Cultural Change and Biblical Faith (Cumbria, UK: Paternoster Press, 2000).6 Christopher Partridge explores the ramifications of the re-enchantment thesis in The Re-Enchantment of
the West , vol. 1 (London & New York: T & T Clark International, 2004).
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 6/25
6
Christendom context, with the increasing marginalization of the church, must be taken
into account given that a pre-Christian environment poses very different and less complex
communicational challenges than does a post-Christian environment.
Signals of Transcendence
Having considered the meaning of the Burning Man festival, and looked at its
cultural context, we now turn our attention to the development of an appropriate form of
theological and missiological engagement. This will involve several components. For the
first element in this process we turn to the noted sociologist Peter Berger for insights.
Peter Berger is University Professor of Sociology and Theology, and Director of
the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture at Boston University. Over the course of
his professional life he has authored numerous books that touch on society and religion.
Berger’s early works, such as The Sacred Canopy (1967), reflect the time in which he
became an academic “in a culture where the theory of secularization was widely
accepted” (Fitzgerald 2001, 11), and as such have often been referenced as arguments
against the validity of religious commitment. However, some of his later works
demonstrate a decidedly different perspective.
In A Rumor of Angels Berger explained that he wanted “to draw a very rough
sketch of an approach to theologizing that began with ordinary human experience, more
specifically with elements of that experience that point toward a reality beyond the
ordinary.” This involved an inductive approach, informed by anthropology as well as
sociology, and resulted in a “search for ‘signals of transcendence’ in order to
‘transcendentalize secularity’” (Ibid., 13). By these signals of transcendence Berger
meant “phenomena that are to be found within the domain of our ‘natural’ reality but that
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 7/25
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 8/25
8
with various religious themes and symbolism leads to its being legitimately understood as
a spiritual festival in many ways. Thus Berger and Eliade’s observations regarding play
and its relationship to time have relevance. With the notion of sacred time related to ritual
and play in mind, play at Burning Man represents far more than the activities of adults
pursuing meaningless abandon in an escape from and rebellion against the profane world.
Rather, play at Burning Man can be understood as a context wherein participants enter
into a sacred time of expression that “appears as if one were stepping not only from one
chronology into another, but from time into eternity” (Berger 1969, 58). Thus, play at
Burning Man represents an important signal of transcendence.
A second example provided by Berger is the “argument from hope” (Ibid., 60)
presented in the specific context of hope in the face of death. But this is not the only
context in which hope is expressed by human beings, and Berger also links this to
“human creation, justice or compassion” with an example he calls “humanitas – the artist
who, against all odds and even in failing health, strives to finish his creative act” (Ibid.,
62).
The argument from hope and Berger’s example of artistry are applicable to
Burning Man as exemplified through the theme for 2006 of “Hope & Fear: The Future.”
This theme was explored in light of Burning Man’s perceptions of the various challenges
to the human race in the twenty-first century, and was connected to and expressed
through art, as exemplified in the design for the structure supporting the effigy of the
Man, the figure which serves as the symbolic center for the festival.7 If we apply Berger’s
argument from hope to Burning Man then the art, ritual, festivity, and other various
activities expressed in expectation of hope by its participants represent expressions that
7 “Hope & Fear: The Future,” Burning Man Journal (Summer 2006): 4.
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 9/25
9
can only be justified in light of a transcendent realm that provides ultimate vindication for
hope in the face of post-modern nihilism. Thus, the argument from hope provides another
indicator of Burning Man’s signals of transcendence.
A third example provided by Berger is the “argument from humor ” (Ibid., 69). In
this argument,
[t]he comic reflects the imprisonment of the human spirit in the world….By
laughing at the imprisonment of the human spirit, humor implies that this
imprisonment is not final but will be overcome, and by this implication provides
yet another signal of transcendence” (Ibid., 70).
Humor represents a significant facet of the playfulness expressed at Burning Man, and
much of this takes place as participants draw upon the symbolism and ideas of
mainstream society and then mocks “the ‘serious’ business of this world and the mighty
who carry it out” (Ibid.) in a process of social inversion. Interestingly, the use of humor
as a means of social inversion in Burning Man parallels the mocking of civic and
ecclesiastical powers historically in festivals such as the medieval Feast of Fools.
Another area might be noted as a “signal of transcendence,” although it is not
found in Berger’s discussion of this topic, and that is the argument from nudity. R. C.
Sproul includes a chapter discussion on nudity in one of his books in which he discusses
it within the context of a psychology of atheism (Sproul 1978, 107-136). He quotes
Sartre with reference to a sense of “shame-consciousness,” which is often connected to
nudity, particularly shame of the self before the Other (Ibid. 109). He also mentions the
work of Kierkegaard with his discussion of the human desire for self-concealment. With
nudity, especially in the West, human beings seem to have the conflicting desire to both
experience nudity in the other, and sometimes the self, but also the corresponding to
conceal one’s own nudity, and sometimes to show it to others as well. Sproul mentions
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 10/25
10
that with this “we find irony, paradox and ambivalence in Western man’s idea of
nakedness/clothedness and concealment/openness” (Ibid., 118).
As mentioned in the introduction to this essay, nudity is a prominent element of
Burning Man, and one most often touched on in the media and evangelical treatments of
the festival. At Burning Man we see the same paradox exhibited in that the majority of
participants are clothed, but there is also a significant expression of nudity. But while
Christians might typically consider nudity as a “signal of debauchery” rather than a signal
of transcendence, in general the prevalence of nudity at Burning Man does not fit this
understanding. In my experience at the festival very little of the nudity seemed to be
about sexuality per se, but rather it appeared to be explored in the sense of freedom from
routine cultural restrictions, identity (re)creation, and bodily experimentation, and
perhaps even attempts at reconnecting with the divine. St. John came to similar
conclusions with reference to nudity and carnality at the ConFest alternative community
festival in Australia (St. John 2000). If these observations are accurate, then the nudity at
Burning Man represents an indication that festival participants desire new senses of
identity and understandings of the body that reconnect them with the sacred. Space
limitations preclude any detailed discussion on this latter point but an apologia could be
constructed from the psychology of religion and grounded in an argument that ceremonial
and festive nudity can represent a primordial human urge to return to Eden and to be
transparent before God. It would be an application of Sproul's apologetic discussion on
nudity, shame and transparency. In light of these considerations nudity serves as yet
another signal of transcendence.
Holy Fools in Post-Modernity
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 11/25
11
Having looked at various signals of transcendence within Burning Man that
demonstrate this community’s interest in significant issues of daily life that point toward
God, and which can serve as points of missiological and apologetic points of contact, we
now turn our attention to discussion of the second component of engagement, the form of
communication.
Communication must be adapted and contextualized appropriately for differing
audiences, and this is the case for good missional engagement8 as well as for good
communication in other contexts. Missional apologetic methods that were effective in the
context of modernity will not be effective in post-modernity. Related to this
consideration, Peter Phan discusses a means of communicating wisdom within post-
modernity and notes two forms of communication that he sees as inappropriate within
this cultural context. The first is mythos or “the form of dramatic narratives explaining
the origin and operation of the universe and place of human beings within it” (2001, 730).
This was appropriate for previous cultures in history but is now depreciated in the West.
The second form of communication he discusses is logos or a means of communication
which emphasizes the rational and the printed text. Phan sees both of these methods as
inappropriate in post-modernity as “the royal road to wisdom by means of mythos and
logos is barred, at least for those who have experienced the tragic consequences of the
modern myth of progress” (Ibid. 731). In their place, Phan suggests mōrosophia, or “what
has been called ‘holy folly’ or ‘crazy wisdom’ or ‘foolish wisdom’ as an alternative route
to rekindle the love of wisdom in the hearts of women and men and” (Ibid.).
8 David J. Hesselgrave & Edward Rommen, Contextualization: Meanings, Methods and Models (Pasadena,
CA: William Carey Library, 2000).
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 12/25
12
The concept of foolish wisdom has a long historical pedigree in the Judeo-
Christian tradition. Stewart traces this back to the Hebrew prophets such as Jeremiah,
Hosea, Isaiah, and Ezekiel (1999, 51-53). She also makes a solid case that connects Jesus
and the New Testament to this tradition of divine folly, as does Phan, who notes that
“[t]he Cross of Christ as the paradigm of God’s folly – foolish wisdom and wise
foolishness – is elaborated at length by Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians” (2001,
739).
Welborn also addresses Paul’s discussion in 1 Corinthians and explores it in depth
(2002). While Paul has traditionally been understood to reference the foolishness of the
cross in 1 Corinthians 1:18 in light of its alleged “absurdity to the people of the ancient
world,” Welborn provides a convincing case that Paul drew upon foolishness from the
imagery of Greco-Roman theater and the character of the mime or clown in order to
communicate his message. If Welborn’s analysis is correct, Paul “portrays himself as a
well known figure in the mime: the befuddled orator” (Ibid., 430). This rhetorical strategy
was “practiced by a number of intellectuals in the early Empire,” due to the attractiveness
of the fool in his freedom in “the utterance of a dangerous truth” (Ibid. 433-434).
Just as Paul was able to draw upon the fool as a strategic rhetorical means of
communicating a great paradox to his audience concerning God’s wisdom, Christians can
seize upon the notion of holy foolishness as a means of communicating divine wisdom to
post-moderns. M ōrosophia may serve as a sound “pedagogical device to lead others to
wisdom” (Phan 2001, 742) within Burning Man.
Jesus as Holy Fool
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 13/25
13
With the pedagogical value of holy foolishness in mind, we return to
consideration of Jesus within this holy fool tradition. Stewart notes that Christians shy
away from such considerations perhaps because of possible fears of irreverence.
However, she argues that we miss an important aspect of Christology if we neglect it.
Stewart does not shy away from this topic, and her discussion of it at some length
provides us with interesting observations.
Stewart’s touches on a number of areas such as Jesus’ embarrassing rejection in
Nazareth as nothing more than “the carpenter’s son” (Matt. 13:54-56), his frequent
connection to “bad company,” and his extension of table fellowship to social outcasts that
served as “a parody of the eschatological banquet, a mockery of traditional expectations”
(Stewart 1999, 77). She also mentions Jesus’ flouting of conventional wisdom related to
the interpretation of the Law (Matt. 5:17-18), and the apparent foolishness of his other
teachings wherein “[l]ove of enemies and returning good for evil are Christian mandates,
and ‘neighbors’ must be redefined as extending to everyone, without exception” (Ibid.
99). Stewart discusses the price Jesus paid for this folly in terms of name calling
(madman, glutton, drunkard), his family’s estimation that he was mad (Mark 1:14-15), to
the claims of his opponents that he was a blasphemer and sinner, and the final price paid
in his passion where even in his final hours he was mocked by religious authorities as
well as the common people.
These examples should serve as reminders for evangelicals of the holy foolishness
embraced by Jesus, and yet few Christians explore this as a significant element of
Christology. Stewart provocatively suggests reasons why:
Following Jesus the Holy Fool is a radically different proposition, for example,than following ‘my buddy Jesus’ and practicing a Christianity which can only be
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 14/25
14
described as self-indulgent. Precisely because contemporary Western Christianity
has become disconnected from the Holy Foolishness of Christ and from the
Dionysian elements of religion, the person of Jesus has been ‘tamed’ into amarketable construct far removed from the gospel of Jesus or from the living
Christ who can still be encountered in Third World nations….[Most Westerners]
cower in dread before the figure of a Dionysian Christ because he is too passionate, too alive, and too challenging to be attractive (Ibid., 176-177).
The presentation of the type of Jesus found commonly in evangelical churches
simply will not speak meaningfully to Burning Man participants. Only the robust Jesus as
Holy Fool, “Jesus the Jester or Jesus the Trickster” is appropriate as a Jesus “vested as ‘a
personification of festivity and fantasy’ in an age which has almost lost both” (Ibid.,
179). Mike Frost also speaks of Jesus as Jester and states that, “As the fool, Jesus was
able to transform the mindset of his culture, and thousands of cultures since, by using his
foolishness like a stalking horse. The prophet sneaks up on us” (1994, electronic copy of
forthcoming revised edition). The foolishness of Jesus that communicates divine wisdom
can also be drawn upon to “sneak up” on Burning Man participants.
Theology of Festivity
The final component to be considered in a missional apologetic before we
combine the elements and put forward the specific means of engagement is that of
festivity. Festival is the primary context of expression for the Burning Man community.
This presents serious challenges to Protestantism which lost its connection to festival.
While Roman Catholic and secular scholars have devoted serious attention to festivity,
this is not the case with Protestants. Festivity is not taken seriously either as a cultural
phenomenon or as a topic for scholarly exploration by most Protestants, and yet Catholic
scholars have argued “that festivals belong by rights among the greatest topics of
philosophical discussion” (Pieper 1999, back cover).
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 15/25
15
One of the Protestants who has addressed festivals is Harvey Cox who argued that
human beings are “essentially festive and ritual creatures” (1969, 8; cf. Browning 1980).
As homo festivus and homo fantasia, human beings express festivity and fantasy through
festival as a form of “theatre of the body.” Cox argues that with the march of
secularization and the continued rejection of festivity “Christianity has often adjusted too
quickly to the categories of modernity” (Ibid. 15), and with this, important facets of what
it means to be human are neglected. As a result, Cox believes that there is a real need for
Christianity in the West to develop a theology of festivity.
In light of this festivity vacuum there is much to be learned theologically from
festivals as Max Harris suggests:
The popular elements in patronal saints’ day festivals, like Carnival, have often been demonized as pagan or heretical...Could it be that popular religious festivals
offer a source of theological wisdom, otherwise unarticulated and therefore
unnoticed by formal theology, that is worthy of a place alongside sacred text,reason, and ecclesiastical tradition? Such a perspective would partly balance the
standard sources of theology, which privilege clerical exegesis, educated reason,
and authoritative legitimation of tradition (2003, 28).
I share Harris’ assessment about the theological value of festivals in general, and the
same could be said of Burning Man in particular. In light of the intriguing idea that Harris
puts forward, and given the nature of Burning Man as a festive counter-community,
evangelicals must consider festivity as a major theological and missiological topic for
future exploration. It also represents a significant facet of the specific missional
apologetic at Burning Man and to this we now turn.
Apocalyptic Man Ablaze
Our missional apologetic approach draws upon the apocalyptic image of the Son
of Man described by John in Revelation 1:14-18:
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 16/25
16
His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like
blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like
the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of hismouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all
its brilliance.
In his vision John poetically describes Christ in fiery imagery, with blazing eyes, glowing
feet, and a face shining like the sun. This imagery of the blazing apocalyptic
(“unveiling”) Son of Man revealing himself to John is contrasted with the literal effigy of
the Man set ablaze at the conclusions of the Burning Man festival. The burn represents
the highlight of the festival and it is rich with symbolism. While each individual is left to
themselves to apply their own meaning to the symbolism of the destruction of the Man,
many Burners attach great significance to him as a figure of hope that dies each year only
to rise and be reborn again in the following year. Our missional apologetic will seek to
communicate Jesus as the fulfillment of the hopes of the Burning Man community as
exemplified in their activities as signals of transcendence, and invested in the burn of the
Man, and in this way Jesus is understood as the Apocalyptic Man Ablaze, the true
Burning Man unveiled to John the Apostle.
This interpretation of the burning of the Man is shared in the context of festival
with its emphasis on social inversion. This can be connected directly to the Christian
narrative which has had a strong influence on festivals historically such as the Feast of
Fools and Carnival. Harris discusses this connection specifically in connection with the
former:
The Feast of Fools, with its explicit justification in the Magnificat, noisily
proclaimed the Christian basis for festive roles of reversal….’Christ’s utterancesabout children and the Kingdom of Heaven, Isaiah’s prophecy that a little child
shall lead them (Isaiah 11:6), and the theme of inversion and the world turned
upside-down found in texts like the ‘Magnificat’.. (Harris 2003, 141).
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 17/25
17
Festivals thus have a historic connection to Christianity, one of the most obvious
being that of Carnival with its connection to Lent. Carnival is a Roman Catholic
celebration with the carnival season being a holiday period that is celebrated during the
two weeks before the traditional Christian fasting of Lent. Lent is a time of preparation
for Holy Week, and its forty days of observance are symbolic of forty day periods of
religious significance found in the Judeo-Christian narrative, most especially Jesus’
retreat into the wilderness for a time of fasting and temptation.
Aspects of the celebration of Carnival during the Renaissance are particularly
important to our apologetic as we seek to make a connection to Burning Man. During this
period the carnival involved a procession or parade which then culminated in the spiritual
re-enactment of Lent. This procession involved a number of characters who enacted a
drama. These characters came to be represented in tarot cards9 such as the Italian
Visconti-Sforza tarot or “tarocchi dating to the middle of the fifteenth century” which
incorporated the artistic imagery of Bonifacio Bembo (Moakley 1966, 19). Two of the
more interesting symbolic figures of the procession and the tarot are the Fool and the
Carnival King. Moakley says that, “The Fool is to be dressed very gaily in red and yellow
adorned with bells, and is to be shown riding on an ass. Here is the first evidence of the
tendency of the Fool to usurp the place of the first..” (Ibid., 49). In addition to the Fool
we must consider the Carnival King. In the Carnival procession “he is the principal
victim of the triumph of Death, and he rises hopefully from the grave in the triumph of
Eternity” (Ibid. 55). Although the medieval Carnival prohibited an actual death the
9 Although the tarot later came to be associated with divination it originally began as a game variously
known as Triumphs. Only later was the tarot used for various esoteric purposes. See John Drane, Ross
Clifford & Philip Johnson, Beyond Prediction: The Tarot and Your Spirituality (Oxford: Lion Publishing,
2001).
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 18/25
18
execution of the Carnival King was an “execution in effigy” which involved “the
cremation of King Carnival” (Ibid., 58).
The similarities of the Fool and the Carnival King to the Christian narrative
should be evident to evangelicals, with the Fool riding on an ass (evoking images of
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem), and the execution of the Carnival King (evoking
Jesus’ death). In addition, the effigy cremation of the Carnival King finds a parallel in the
effigy of the Man set ablaze at the conclusion of Burning Man. Beyond these interesting
points of contact, we can draw upon the medieval carnival and its tarot imagery in the
construction of a contextualized apologetic.
The tarot cards involve “symbolic depictions of life and its meaning in many
ancient cultural contexts” (Drane, Clifford & Johnson 2001, 26). The imagery of the
cards tap into universal archetypes and a symbolic world, and as such they can be used to
communicate “a universal human story” (Ibid. 25). This symbolic imagery not only
touches on the mundane of life but also portrays the spiritual journey. This leads to the
premiere figure in the deck, the character of The Fool. The Fool is the Jester, a comedic
and carnival figure. Yet the Fool also embraces the wisdom of God through his
foolishness. Consider the symbolism of the Fool in the Rider Waite tarot deck:
This is the most powerful card in the entire deck. The Fool strolls towards a
precipice unconcerned. The world is alive with his presence and he carries the
most powerful spiritual symbols of all.
The bright sunshine accompanies the fool because his presence dispels all
darkness. He walks among the mountain tops – the abode of the creator. Across
his shoulder he carries the shepherd’s staff, which is also found in the Hermit
card, and at the end of the staff is a bag containing a free gift for those who meethim. In his other hand the Fool holds the white rose, which only appears on the
Death card. At his feet there is a white dog following him, different from the evil
dog on the Moon card and is a symbol for those who follow their master.
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 19/25
19
The Fool, who is young in years, is the true spiritual guide. He holds the
shepherds crook, because it is he who brings spiritual direction. The good
shepherd knows his sheep by name and they know his voice. Following theshepherd brings eternal life as he holds the white rose taken from the Grim
Reaper. The shepherd as our guide is a free gift. (Ibid., 93)
Through the use of tarot imagery and symbolism we can “connect the dots” and
bring together the various elements we have discussed previously including the history
and symbolism of Carnival and Lent, the biblical story, and Burning Man into a narrative
form of a missional apologetic relevant to Burning Man. This approach must be
communicated by evangelicals within the context of identification with and empathy for
Burning Man participants, and include the facets of community, participation, and
missional incarnation in this subculture.
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 20/25
20
Life is a journey, and we come to the desert of Burning Man as a part of that
journey. We engage in various activities such as play, humor, and hope that express our
deepest desires for a sense of Spirit in and beyond our lives and the creation. The context
of Burning Man is creativity and festivity, yet the desert environment also involves
isolation and a time of personal testing. This contrast of festivity and self-denial that we
experience at Burning Man is common to other peoples, cultures, and times, and such as
the medieval celebration of Carnival and Lent. Just as Carnival would often end in the
cremated effigy of the executed Carnival King, the Burning Man festival culminates in
the symbolic burning of the Man. But something is different in the Man in that in him we
as Burning Man participants invest our hopes and dreams in anticipation of his rising
again the next year. By way of personal interpretation and application of this carnival and
festival symbolism past and present, the celebration of the carnival of life introduces us to
themes of enjoyment and festivity but also sets the stage for our individual spiritual
journeys and times of testing.
With this understanding we turn to the spiritual tool of the tarot as a means of
understanding ourselves and our journey in this festive place. In the tarot the carnival of
life is symbolically represented particularly in the character of the Fool. He moves
through life engaging in festivity and is ignored by the world that dismisses him as a
worthless jester. However, through his jesting the Fool engages in holy foolishness and
through his divine wisdom subverts the wisdom of the powers which damage our
connections to nature, to self, to community, and to the divine. The work of the Fool
climaxes in his death. Seemingly defeated, he mocks the powers by rising from the dead,
forever alive. He is symbolically present not only in the tarot, but also in the effigy of the
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 21/25
21
Burning Man. Thus, the Fool unveils himself (apocalyptic) as the true Burning Man,
rising and shining with fiery brilliance.
Conclusion
The Apocalyptic Man Ablaze can be shared in a variety of ways, both through
interactive dialogue involving the tarot cards, as well as through performance art that
involves actors, dancers, and jesters acting out the characters and symbolism of the tarot
and its connection to carnival, festival, and Burning Man. Through these means of
missional apologetic engagement we can extend an invitation to Burning Man
participants:
The Fool has always been with us, calling us from death to new life, empowering
us on the roller coaster of life. He is our universal hero, ‘the wind beneath our
wings’. He invites us to be his dancing partner. As we begin to move our feet inthe divine dance, the choreography progressively leads us to abandon all the
negative energies properly depicted in the Tarot cards. As we are swept into the
Fool’s positive embrace, we intuitively know who we want to explore life with.The Tarot beyond prediction is a call to broaden our horizons beyond our
consciousness and to reconnect our souls with the divine source of all life. Let’s
dance. (Ibid., 133)
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 22/25
22
BIBLIOGRAPHY/WORKS CITED
Berger, Peter. 1969. A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the
Supernatural . Garden City: Anchor/Doubleday.
Browning, Robert L. 1980. “Festivity – From a Protestant Perspective,” Religious Education 75/3 (May-June): 273-281.
Chad, Martin. 1999. “Carnival: A Theology of Laughter and a Ritual for Social Change,”
Worship 73/1 (January): 45-53.
Cox, Harvey. 1969. The Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay on Feasting and Festivity.
New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
Drane, John, Ross Clifford & Philip Johnson. 2001. Beyond Prediction: The Tarot and
Your Spirituality. Oxford: Lion Publishing.
Eliade, Mircea. 1954. The Myth of the Eternal Return, or, Cosmos and History.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (New York: HarcourtBrace & World, Inc.
Falassi, Alessandro (ed). 1967. Time Out of Time: Essays on the Festival . University of New Mexico Press.
Fitzgerald, Paul J. 2001. “Faithful Sociology: Peter Berger’s Religious Project,”
Religious Studies Review 27/1 (January): 10-17.
Frost, Michael. 1994. Jesus the Fool: The Mission of the Unconventional Christ .
Albatross Books. Prepublication manuscript of forthcoming expanded and updatededition.
Gilhus, Ingvild Saelid. 1990. “Carnival in Religion: The Feast of Fools in France,” Numen 37 (June): 24-52.
Harris, Max. 2003. Carnival and Other Christian Festivals: Folk Theology and Folk
Performance. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Heelas, Paul & Linda Woodhead. 2005. The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving
Way to Spirituality. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Hutton, Ronald. 1996. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 23/25
23
Moakley, Gertrude. 1966. The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo For the
Visconti-Sforza Family. New York: New York Public Library.
Phan, Peter C. 2001. “The Wisdom of Holy Fools in Postmodernity,” Theological Studies
62: 730-752.
Pieper, Josef. 1999. In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity. South Bend: St.Augustine’s Press.
St. John, Graham. 2000. “Alternative Cultural Heterotopia: ConFest as Australia’sMarginal Centre.” Ph.D. diss., La Trobe University, electronic version at
www.confest.org/thesis/; accessed 14 September 2006.
Santino, Jack (ed). 1994. Halloween and Festivals of Death and Life. Knoxville:University of Tennessee Press.
Sproul, R. C. 1978. If There Is a God, Why Are There Atheists? Minneapolis, MN:Bethany Fellowship.
Starkloff, Carl F. 1997 “Church Structure and Communitas: Victor Turner and
Ecclesiology,” Theological Studies 58: 643-668.
Stewart, Elizabeth-Anne. 1999. Jesus the Holy Fool . Franklin, Wisconsin: Sheed &
Ward.
Tongeren, Louis Van, Paulus G. J. Post, G.A. Rouwhorst & A. Sheer (eds). 2001.
Christian Feast and Festival: The Dynamics of Western Liturgy and Culture. Leuven:
Peeters.
Turner, Victor. 1969. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University Press.
───. (ed). 1982. Celebration: Studies in Festivity and Ritual . Washington, D.C.:Smithsonian Institution Press.
From Ritual to Theater: The Human Seriousness of Play. New York, NY:
PAJ Publications.
The Anthropology of Performance. New York: PAJ Publications.
Welborn, Laurence L. 2002. “Paul’s Appropriation of the Role of the Fool in 1
Corinthians 1-4,” Biblical Interpretation 10/4: 420-435.
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 24/25
24
Photo credits:
Burning Man image on page 1, reproduced by permission. Copyright 2006 by Rick Egan,http://www.moonski.net/burningman/, and Burning Man LLC.
The Fool Illustration on page 19 from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, known also as theRider Tarot and the Waite Tarot, reproduced by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc.,Stamford, CT 06902 USA. Copyright 1971 by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Further
reproduction prohibited. The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck is a registered trademark of U.S.
Games Systems, Inc.
7/27/2019 “Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Revealed in the Risen Holy Fool”
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apocalyptic-man-ablaze-the-hope-of-burning-mans-effigy-revealed-in-the 25/25
Revisions:
Feedback from Ken for revisions.
On page 12 he suggests I need to develop the discussion of Paul’s rhetorical strategy of
the holy fool more fully, at least in footnotes.
On page 14 with the mention of the Jesus in evangelical churches not speaking
meaningfully to Burning Man as contrasted with Jesus the Jester, need to strengthen and
expand.
On page 17 with distinction between Carnival and Lent, Ken suggests this is academic
view. Modify this discussion in light of Chad Martin’s article.
Philip’s suggestion: connect the dots on Paul’s discussion of Jesus as embodiment of
wisdom, and connect this to postmodern concerns for such a concept.