Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TRICKSTER

A symbolic figure of myths, fairy tales, folktales, and legends whose aberrant behavior is customarily embraced and celebrated by a given society or culture. He is characteristically liminal, existing betwixt and between the confines of social convention and the unlimited expanse of nature; his conduct is scatological and deconstructive, yet simultaneously creative of those values which establish social harmony. The trickster is a master of deception, noted for feats of trickery, survival, irreverence, humor, and creativity, who outsmarts his opponents with disguise and rhetorical skill, yet often succumbs to his own conceit and recklessness. He is frequently portrayed as both deceiver and deceived, wise and foolish, powerful and weak, moral and immoral, creator and destroyer. The trickster figure is paradigmatic of human behavior in its extremes, and thus a means by which humans come to understand the fundamental ambiguity of their own existence. The trickster is central to many tales narrated in Africa, China, Japan, India, the ancient Near East, ancient Greece, as well as the folklore of the Indo-europeans.

Tales about tricksters and countertricksters suggest not only the ambiguity of the trickster, but also a socioeconomic context wherein normal structures of power are reversed in favor of the weaker. The trickster figure has been seen as a universal or archetypal image, whose ambiguous actions can not only wreak havoc with culture, but also account for the creation of natural phenomena. The trickster figure is frequently made responsible for the ambiguity which exists in the world and, as such, the symbolic representation of the fundamental ambiguity of humanity. The trickster also represents a “transforming archetype,” suggesting movement and change from shadow (the dark side of the self as source of foolishness, pain, and harm) to anima (the soul as creative principle of life). Trickster-hero tales may function, in part, as a means to resist the status quo. In this context, the trickster disrupts or overturns prevailing structures and relations of power: the weak become strong and the strong become weak. The trickster may be a clown (or court jester) whose scatological humor and wild antics not only make us laugh, but customarily do so at the expense of the prevailing authorities and their social conventions.

Formal trickster tales do not occur in the biblical material with the same clarity or frequency as in the mythologies of the North American Indians and elsewhere; nor does the Judeo-Christian tradition testify to an established practice of celebration on behalf of the trickster. Perhaps this explains, in part, why biblical scholarship has not customarily focused upon the trickster figure in the Hebrew and Christian literature, though the scholarship is clearly aware that characteristics of the trickster are present. Certainly the image of Satan — whether that of the Accuser in the book of Job or Deceiver and enemy of God in later manifestations — is frequently associated with various offensive images of the trickster. Yet, at the same time, the Hebrew God frequently exhibits the unpredictable and playful behavior that is also characteristic of a trickster. Moreover, such stories as Jacob’s successful ruse against his brother Esau, or David’s encounter with Goliath, clearly demonstrate trickster motifs. Some early Christian representations of Jesus likewise appear to illustrate aspects of the trickster figure, especially in the context of those controversy dialogues wherein Jesus confounds his opponents with his quick wit and rhetorical skill (e.g., when dealing with the question of the tax money or engaging the Pharisees’ charge of collusion with Beelzebul). In the context of the social and cultural oppression enacted by the Romans, and in accordance with the many and diverse Jewish organizations fighting for cultural recognition, it is not surprising that the early Jewish Christians should embrace a story which represents the poor and the weak over against the rich and the powerful, and that this strength to resist is manifest frequently in Jesus’ ability to confound his opponents with his tricksterlike mastery of language.

Bibliography. C. G. Jung, Four Archetypes: Mother, Rebirth, Spirit, Trickster (1959, repr. London, 1972); R. D. Pelton, The Trickster in West Africa (Berkeley, 1980); P. Radin, The Trickster (1956, repr. New York, 1972); S. Thompson, The Folktale (1946, repr. Berkeley, 1977); J. D. Zipes, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (New York, 1983).

Michael L. Humphries

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TRICKSTER

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)