Kairos and Carnival: Mikhail Bakhtin’s Rhetorical and Ethical Christian Vision

Ian Bekker

doi:10.3390/rel9030079

Abstract

The term kairos has been used to mean, alternatively, right timing or proportion in Ancient Greek rhetoric, by Jesus to refer to the Christian eschaton and by Paul Tillich and modern liberation theologians to refer to the breakthrough of the divine into human history. Kairos, unlike chronos, is an intrinsically qualitative time and implies a consciousness of the present as well as the need for responsive action. This emphasis on action provides the link between kairos and virtue, the particular virtue in question being that of prudence (phronesis in Greek). The aim of this article is twofold: to highlight and make explicit the connections between the notion of kairos and the Russian literary-theorist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin’s rhetorical and ethical world, with particular emphasis on his notion of carnival; secondly, to further support a Christian reading of Bakthin’s work by making explicit the connections between his carnivalesque vision and a Christian reading of the ethical importance of kairos and its links with incarnation.

Highlights

IntroductionKairos has been opposed to chronos, the later referring to quantitative (measured or ordered) time, the former referring to qualitative time, or special time
Kairos has been opposed to chronos, the later referring to quantitative time, the former referring to qualitative time, or special time
The above discussion has only provided the briefest of outlines of the historical development of the concept of kairos, and I believe that its importance for an understanding of Bakhtin’s Christian ethos will require a book-length treatment of this development

Summary

Introduction

Kairos has been opposed to chronos, the later referring to quantitative (measured or ordered) time, the former referring to qualitative time, or special time. The section of this article provides a brief historical overview of the use of the term kairos, the connections between the notion of kairos and Mikhail Bakhtin’s ethical and rhetorical vision, with firstly within the context of the classical world, but secondly with reference to its employment within a particular emphasis on his notion of carnival; secondly, to further support a Christian reading of a Christian milieu, beginning with its use in the Greek New Testament, but placing the most emphasis. Often diametrically opposed, interpretations of right from the beginning (i.e., the New Testament) this allows for, in this last section, a final bringing carnival, from an ethical and political perspective, have arisen since Bakhtin’s re-discovery, together of Bakhtin’s notion of carnival and a Christian understanding of kairos Both within and without Russia, in the second half of the 20th-century. The position adopted here is that Bakhtin’s (and carnival’s) ethics are of an essentially ( implicitly and unorthodox)

A Brief History of Kairos

Bakhtin’s Carnival

Conclusions