ABSTRACT
One of the most striking aspects of the holy fool in European culture is its ubiquity: the figure appears in various guises across many nationalities and traditions. This chapter discusses the holy fool from its earliest appearance, through its development in various European contexts, in order to explain its entry into the twentieth-century cinematic world. The theological context of the idea stems from the concept of foolishness for Christ, expressed in the Epistles of St Paul, which justified the flouting of social and intellectual conventions for religious ends. The preaching of the cross lies at the heart of the kerygma of the early church and is tell-ingly encapsulated in the Pauline letters and in his First Epistle to the Corinthians. Derville notes that most patristic commentators in the West fashion the discussion in a pedagogical manner, ensuring there is a smooth transition from the best of human wisdom to the wisdom of Christ, which attenuates the rupture between the two.
