Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Mans 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 like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance St. Johns 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 flame Still 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 Burning Man festival demonstrates elements of human experience that can be interpreted as signals of transcendence. In a postmodern context, holy foolishness provides an appropriate motif for engaging this community regarding these expressions of the sacred. Jesus as Holy Fool embodies divine wisdom in the context of festivity, overcomes the abusive powers of authority, and unveils himself as the Apocalyptic Man Ablaze offering us the gift wholeness and reconnection with the divine.

http://www.burningman.com/blackrockcity_yearround/tales/constance2.html

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 festivals existence, or they too share in the popular medias fixation on some of the festivals 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
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The official Burning Man website can be found at www.burningman.com.

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 postmodernity, 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 outsiders (etic) perspective, but one that does so with an eye toward a sympathetic insiders (emic) concerns. A review of sociological and anthropological concepts such as Hakim Beys Temporary Autonomous Zone (Bey 1991), and Victor Turners 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]

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 Space 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. Johns 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.
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. Morehead, 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.
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(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 postmodern 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 postmodern 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 post5

John Drane discusses many of the implications of cultural change for the faith of Christians within postmodernity 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).

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. Bergers 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

appear to point beyond that reality (Berger 1969, 53). He felt that these sociological experiences are best understood as pointers to Gods presence and existence. Berger developed this thinking in light of the skeptical response to Christianity that developed historically and which reached a crescendo in the turbulent times of the counter-culture of the 1960s in which he wrote Rumor. Given that Burning Man is in many ways a continuation and fruit of this counter-culture, having originated out of the influential Bohemian subculture of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bergers theological insights seem especially applicable in the development of a missional apologetic. Let us consider several of Bergers signals of transcendence that are especially relevant to Burning Man. To the casual evangelical observer Burning Man participants might seem as if they are interested in anything but spirituality, or at least few spiritual themes in which evangelicals might find common ground. But this is not the case, as we will see from specific examples of Bergers thesis. One of the examples Berger offers is the argument from play (Ibid., 57; emphasis in original). As he discusses this he notes that, One aspect of play..is the fact that play sets up a separate universe of discourse, with its own rules, which suspends, for the duration, the rules and general assumptions of the serious world. One of the most important assumptions thus suspended is the time structure of ordinary social life.In playing, one steps out of one time into another (Ibid., 58). Bergers mention of time, and the important distinction between play time and ordinary time, dovetails with the thinking of Mircea Eliade who distinguished between profane and sacred time in the celebration of religious festivals (Eliade 1959; cf. Pieper 1999, 52-53 and Falassi 1967). According to Eliade, religious rituals conducted during festivals recapture a sense of sacred time and nullify profane time. While Burning Man should not be construed as a religious festival per se, its festive experimentation and play

with various religious themes and symbolism leads to its being legitimately understood as a spiritual festival in many ways. Thus Berger and Eliades 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 Bergers 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 Mans 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 Bergers 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.

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 Mans 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 Bergers 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 ones own nudity, and sometimes to show it to others as well. Sproul mentions

that with this we find irony, paradox and ambivalence in Western mans 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

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Having looked at various signals of transcendence within Burning Man that demonstrate this communitys 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 postmodernity 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 mrosophia, 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.).

David J. Hesselgrave & Edward Rommen, Contextualization: Meanings, Methods and Models (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2000).

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The concept of foolish wisdom has a long historical pedigree in the JudeoChristian 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 Gods folly foolish wisdom and wise foolishness is elaborated at length by Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians (2001, 739). Welborn also addresses Pauls 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 Welborns 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 Gods wisdom, Christians can seize upon the notion of holy foolishness as a means of communicating divine wisdom to post-moderns. Mrosophia may serve as a sound pedagogical device to lead others to wisdom (Phan 2001, 742) within Burning Man. Jesus as Holy Fool

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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. Stewarts touches on a number of areas such as Jesus embarrassing rejection in Nazareth as nothing more than the carpenters 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 familys 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

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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 a marketable 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).

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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:

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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 his mouth 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.Christs utterances about children and the Kingdom of Heaven, Isaiahs 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).

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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

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).

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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 shepherds 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 meet him. 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.

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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 the shepherd 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.

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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

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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 in the 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 Fools 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. Lets dance. (Ibid., 133)

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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: Harcourt Brace & 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 Bergers 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 updated edition. 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.

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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. Augustines Press. St. John, Graham. 2000. Alternative Cultural Heterotopia: ConFest as Australias Marginal 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. Pauls Appropriation of the Role of the Fool in 1 Corinthians 1-4, Biblical Interpretation 10/4: 420-435.

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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 the Rider 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.

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Revisions: Feedback from Ken for revisions. On page 12 he suggests I need to develop the discussion of Pauls 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 Martins article. Philips suggestion: connect the dots on Pauls discussion of Jesus as embodiment of wisdom, and connect this to postmodern concerns for such a concept.

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