![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
Christian religious educators are charged with teaching the practice of loving as Jesus did—transforming broken relationships and enacting radical, life-giving ways of being with and for one another. Redefining some of the sensibilities of “clown ministry” of earlier decades, the author presents clowning as a critical pedagogy that “tutors” (Pruyser 1983) learners to embody prophetic imagination, thereby approximating God's new creation. The article explores experiences of students clowning led by the author. In mimicking “fools for Christ,” they surprise themselves and those they meet by loving. Their experiences are analyzed through interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing on D.W. Winnicott, Walter Brueggemann, Maria Harris, Paulo Freire, and others.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I appreciate the enthusiastic participation of the spring 2014 Creative Pedagogy students at the Boston University School of Theology, the feedback of Laura Chevalier, and the teaching assistance of Francisca Ireland-Verwoerd. I am grateful to Drs. Stanford Goto and Chris Schlauch for their helpful comments on drafts and to Sang-il Kim for his research assistance. I also thank Rev. Gary Barbaree, a.k.a. Baca the Clown.
Notes
1 Corinthians 1:26–30.
Welborn (2005, 4) argues that mime does not mean mute but refers to a reproduction of everyday life that involves monologue or dialogue. Mime and jest involve low comedy and parody (5).
One can find many versions of clown communions on YouTube®. Scholars in pastoral care have written about clowning, mostly in the late 1980s to the late 1990s (Travers Citation1989; Richter and Zonner Citation1996; Feaster Citation1998). One recent exception is in homiletics (see Cilliers Citation2009).
This fourfold way of thinking about John Wesley's theological method was expressed by Albert Outler, who coined the term “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” (Outler Citation1985).
In calling for “solidarity education,” Roebben (2013, 206–09) advocates the embrace of imperfection, non-planning, “slow-ification,” community building, and silence. Interestingly, clowning embodies all five practices. Asking difficult, “slow questions” requires considering the complexity of life. Clowning involves complex social relationships.
Christ has also been described as a clown figure (Miller Citation1981; Cox Citation1969).
The student mentions “true self,” a Winnicottian concept I had taught and that I explain below.
W. E. B. du Bois (1953/2007) famously refers to the veil of racism that contributes to the invisibility of Blacks and prevents them from seeing themselves truly, as they are mirrored by White society.
The student's reference to “objects as transition” is a likely link to D. W. Winnicott's theory of transitional objects, which we were studying.
One might also understand the clowning exercise in terms of a broader movement in education toward critical pedagogy, of which Freire is a part. The clowning exercise (at least ideally) is an example of “ludic postmodernism” that has been revised to support social critique and resistance (McLaren Citation1994, 198–200; Usher and Edwards Citation1994, 16; Morris Citation1999, 412–24; Kincheloe Citation1997, 1197).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Courtney T. Goto
Courtney T. Goto is an Assistant Professor of Religious Education at the Boston University School of Theology. She is the author of The Grace of Playing: Pedagogies for Leaning into God's New Creation (Pickwick, 2016), the third book published in the Religious Education Association Horizons Series. E-mail: [email protected]