[ninenot]

Sorry--my sarcasm sometimes goes over the top... and yes, Twinkle Twinkle is a goodie for the kids--have you heard the orchestrated Variations on that tune? Good stuff. More seriously, the more children are exposed to "good stuff" the more they will recall it AND understand it as they get older; thus the oboe theme for the duck in "Peter," where the oboe mimics the sound of a duck's voice; and the dark, moody minor-dominated tonality of the Wolf theme; the happy strolling music of Peter, etc., etc. Prokoviev was good at using the orchestra to illustrate, and the picture is painted. As to JC: seems to me that JC was never "in a costume." Perhaps the clearest refutation of the "clown" theorists is simply that: JC was Truth unadorned--that is, no disguise is necessary--moreover, a disguise would be contrary to His mission. Mutatis mutandis same for the "fool" theory. It is a wild distortion of reality (God AND Man) for Him to be portrayed as a 'fool,' although it is clear that in relationship to Christ, mankind is the 'fool.' Perhaps the role-reversal these theorists propound is indicative of their massive egos.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

I don't have a problem with trying to understand Christianity in the context of other symbolic or cultural systems. I think the clownistas cannot also be the "quest for the historical Jesus" people or the Last Temptation of Christ people with their various ultra-realistic "Jesus as just a man" theologies. You end up with this musical chairs approach to the masks of God. Orthodox Catholicism offers a very stable and divine living, loving, forgiving, and healing Christ that I am happy with. My personal opinion is that this is symbolism which works well in Catholicism. And it should work well for the clowns as well.