Liberating Laughter
Bakhtin wrote that laughter “liberated, to a certain extent, from censorship, oppression, and from the stake. But . . . laughter is essentially not an external but an interior form of truth . . . . Laughter liberates not only from exterior censorship but first of all from the great interior censor; it liberates from the fear that developed in man during thousands of years; fear of the sacred, of prohibitions, of the past, of power . . . . The seriousness of fear and suffering in their religious, social, political and ideological forms could not but be impressive. The consciousness of freedom, on the other hand, could be only limited and utopian.”
“Limited and utopian” unless, of course, there is a transcendent, holy laughter that fills the universe (Psalm 2).
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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