Докса (Jun 2017)
THE LAUGHTER OF THE HOLY FOOL AS A MANIFESTATION OF BLASPHEMY: THE EXPERIENCE OF PROBLEMATIZATION
Abstract
This article contains a critical analysis of the relationship to the foolishness of a non-conformist form of religiosity. The dynamics of the alternative justifications of this form of holiness is discussed. The research foolishness manifested anticlerical spirit. Saints come from allies, they see rebels against tradition. However, the category of holiness in the Russian Orthodox culture can not be viewed through the prism of religious experience, opposed to religious institutions, in terms of counter-culture. We must be wary of the notion of “folk religion”. This concept is loaded with anti-clerical ideology. Folk Orthodoxy is necessary to investigate as the sum of the religious practices that are in dynamic interaction with religious institutions. The foolishness of a religious practice is focused on the search for rules of communication with various kinds of sacred, finding boundaries and characteristics inherent in the world of the sacred. In the Orthodox tradition is not designed church conceptualization of holiness. This also applies to the medieval theology and church science in modern times. There is a gap between the normative texts and practices. It is a space of free experimentation. The conflict of ordinary notions of Holiness with the theological norm of the Church is inevitable. However, the conflict should not be exaggerated. The article analyzes laughter as important feature of the behavior of the Holy Fool. The article presents and critically commented popular interpretations of the foolishness. As shown in the article when interpreting the laughter of a Fool, they conflict. When building the theoretical concepts were taken into account the point of view of the believer’s consciousness. Philosophicalanthropological approach was used to the explanation of the laughter of a Fool.
Keywords
