Because in Gargantua and Pantagruel, Rabelais critiqued many of the vices that need a parallel critique in American culture and the Amercian church. This is especially needed because, in many ways the church it has syncretistically responded to the siren song of modern Liberal culture, in both its conservative and liberal forms. Here's what the editor, Caleb Stegall, has to say about Pantagruel in the introduction: <br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]The pre-modern remnant of the Christian tradition reacts against the more obviously exploitative and soul deadening aspects of Liberalism, but the overweening temptation to be immediately relevant, to participate in Western “mass” culture, and to get a seat at the table has inexorably dragged the church forward towards its mass death. The Western church has become, in large part, a walking identity-crisis. Thus, we experience the frustrations of a schizophrenic who desires simultaneously to be the life of the party and to be left completely alone; we are continually demoralized by our failure to find a place where we can experience equally the pride of being different and the happiness of blending in. In essence, this crisis embodies the whole ailing left-right split of our modern era. The recognition must soon dawn on the church that no matter what one’s political persuasion, there is no modern basis for achieving the true wealth that is life; no modern basis for the humane traditions of the Church; no modern basis for a real counterweight to the forces of the age. There is, then, both a historic need and moment for prophetic voices that treat the modernity-induced crisis of church and culture effectively.<br><br>The New Pantagruel aspires to do just that, on whatever scale, large or small, is given us. It is namesake to the satirical, irreverent, jocular, and committed anti-materialist work of the 16th Century French Christian Humanist François Rabelais. Rabelais’s time was much like our own: revolution and unparalleled expansion; avarice turned nearly into an art; soul deadening materialism; stifling political centralization; easy corruption in churches and governments; gross societal inequities; and tradition either ghettoized or seeking accomodation. In Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel, Pantagruel trips through life in the French countryside with his loyal but rascally companion, Panurge. Along the way, they drink deeply of the “triumphal, earthly life” (Erich Auerbach) and the “wild enormities of ancient magnanimity” (Thomas Browne). With this mirthful temperament towards all that is humane and with frightful anger directed against the forces that would squash such things, Rabelais used laughter, parody, and what the Russian Literary Critic Mikhail Bakhtin called “grotesque realism” as a means of subverting the pillars of official culture and the proto-totalitarian orders of society. Pantagruelism is, according to Rabelais, “a certain jollity of mind pickled in the scorn of fortune.” It is that odd cast of mind which allows one to see the corruption everywhere, including in oneself, while still loving the world.</font><hr></blockquote><p>Certainly Rabelais infused Pantagruel with rough, extravagant, even lewd humor. However, in some ways this is part of the critique -- to bring the project of Liberalism down from its rarified air to the real grit of its deleterious effects on Joe Sixpack. For a small example, I think Peter Leithart gave us a glimpse of this in his, admittedly provactive, recent book Against Christianity:<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]If theology deals with "timeless truths," then all the temporal things we encounter in life are outside the range of theology.<br>But everything we encounter in life is temporal.<br>Therefore, all life is outside of theology.<br>All that remains within the realm of theology are (perhaps) ecstatic and "timeless" encounters of the soul with God, God with the solu. Theology keeps Christian teaching at the margains and ensures that other voices, other languages, other words shape the world of temporalities. Politics is left to politicians, economics to economists, sociology to sociologists, history to historians, and philosophy to madmen.<br>Theology ensures that Christians have nothing to say about nearly everything. * * * <br><br>Theology is a "Victorian" enterprise, neoclassically bright and neat and clean, nothing out of place.<br>Whereas the Bible talks about hair, blood, sweat, entrails, menstruation, and genetial emissions.</font><hr></blockquote><p>A bit tongue in cheek? Sure. Hyperbole? Sure, but with a point. BTW, I quote this NOT to draw a parallel between modern theology (reformed or otherwise) and Liberalism (there might or might not be such a parallel), BUT INSTEAD to show that sometimes the bawdy is more real than rarified.<br><br>I hope this helps. Check it out when the first issue is published in a couple of months. The proof of the pudding will be in the tasting. I hope it tastes good!<br><br>In Him,<br><br>Clay<br>