Holy fools and their secular or pagan counterparts (even pagans recognize a good thing when they see one!) are found in many different cultural and religious contexts: in Russian Orthodoxy they are called yurodive; Judaism and Islam have the shlemiel; Tibetan Buddhism have their lamas; in Hinduism there is a figure called avadhuta; the English have the jester; Greeks, the salos; the French, their jongleur; and many African and Native North American peoples have the trickster. While it would hardly be prudent to advocate the full range of activities of these 'characters,' they represent a societal role that can be instructive to those of us who preach an 'intrusive word.'

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Holy fools have been regarded with some ambivalence over the years. They have often been shifted to the margins of society, but, at the same time, are highly valued by society. Holy fools are those 'we don't know what to do with' but 'don't want to do without.' The pointed parodies of the words and actions of the holy fool both amuse and scandalize. They tease, cajole, mimic, lampoon, shame, teach and inspire. They prod their peers to change when they are slow to move; they inspire restraint when people are too prone to abandon what should be cherished. In the words of Peter Antoci, "…the essence of holy folly is salvific scandal-making."10

It may help to see some of the representatives of this tradition in our own roots. The ancient biblical prophets occasionally acted the holy fool with antics like: nudity (Isaiah 20:1-6); wearing an ox yoke (Jeremiah 27:1ff); playing with clay (Ezekiel 4:1-3); and marrying an adulteress (Hosea 1:2,3). Again, while not advocating all these actions for the contemporary preacher, there is a lesson to be learned. It is the sheer unconventional quality of such action that would burn the prophet's message into the minds and wills of God's wayward people. Such activity tends to circumvent the conventional defense mechanisms and shocks the audience into response. Many of the prophets' words also have a similar quality to them. It's hard not to laugh, for instance, when Isaiah is describing the futility of idol worship (44:12-20).11 Partly why we may be so impotent in our pulpits today is that the people know where we're going and how we're going to get there before we do. While not advocating turning preachers into 'shock jocks,' many of us could use a little more voltage in our preaching.

From the pages of church history, St. Francis might serve as a memorable example of a holy fool who considered himself a preacher. Even if we are uncomfortable with some of his actions (and I am), we still can learn from his epistemology. Francis seemed to have an inverted vision of reality, like he was always walking on his hands. Chesterton explains this phenomenon by stating, "[t]he whole point of him was that the secret of recovering the natural pleasures lay in regarding them in the light of a supernatural pleasure."12 Because of this perspective, Francis looked like the fool. In retrospect, however, we ask, 'Who really was the fool?' St. Francis had (and still has) an influential and disquieting influence on the church. Not bad for a fool.