TY - JOUR TI - God’s Clown AU - Bársony, Márton TI - God’s Clown AB - There was a time when priests started cracking jokes, telling anecdotes, speaking in an obscene manner to entertain their audience and raise a laugh. Their indecent buffooneries transformed Easter celebrations into carnivals – some of which took on quite extreme shapes. Later, the Church persecuted those involved in this practice, but traces of it still remain in Eastern Orthodox traditions. We cannot find a single link to risus paschalis in the Scriptures, nor in the writings of the Apostles, nor even a clue in the religious practices of the first Christian generations. We laugh at the transgression of the dying and rising Christ in the same way as we laugh at the clown thrown on the ground and jumping up again. Still, the cultural history of the clown rituals is an even more contested issue. What does Christ have to do with this tradition? What epistemological qualities bind them together? VL - 2014 IS - Tom 47, Numer 3 PY - 2014 SN - 0137-2432 C1 - 2084-4077 SP - 153 EP - 161 DO - 10.4467/20844077SR.14.011.2905 UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/studia-religiologica/artykul/gods-clown KW - Jezus Chrystus KW - klaun KW - śmiech KW - risus paschalis – śmiech wielkanocny KW - fałszywe królestwo KW - Michał Bachtin KW - Maurice Lever KW - Ákos Szilágyi KW - Enid Welsford KW - święta wielkanocne KW - Pasja ; Jesus Christ KW - clown KW - laughter KW - risus paschalis – Easter laughter KW - mock kingdom KW - Mikhail Bakhtin KW - Easter holidays KW - Passion