God's Fools: Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and the Making of Modern Comedy - Hardcover

by Jason Crawford (Author)

Comedians play a complicated role in modern culture. They get up on public stages to talk about nothing in particular, with no expertise. They go out of their way to put their flaws, failures, and shabbiness on display. They break social taboos and orchestrate their own persecution. And through it all, they seem to be touched with a kind of spiritual charisma. Sometimes they seem like prophets, speaking truths that no one else would dare. Sometimes they seem like children, wide-eyed and innocent. We can't stop listening to what they have to say.

Author Biography

Jason Crawford is Professor of English at Union University. His book Allegory and Enchantment was published by Oxford University Press in 2017, and his essays have appeared in publications such as ELH, The Cresset, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He earned his graduate degrees at Harvard and has been a research fellow at Oxford University, at the Huntington Library, and at the University of Tennessee's Marco Institute. He lives in Tennessee with four funny people and one funny dog.