A Theopolis Institute Partner Feature

released 9/3/2024

In this 2024 lecture at the Theopolis Institute, Ken Myers asserts that the ultimate foundation for festivity is an affirmation of the goodness of Creation and all of life. Drawing on ideas from Josef Pieper’s In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity, Myers explains why the spirit of festivity is the spirit of worship, and that “entertainment” is ultimately an artificial, contrived, and empty effort to achieve festivity. A universal and communal affirmation of the goodness of reality given by God enables people to celebrate smaller moments of life in a spirit of “existential richness,” according to Pieper. And the model for all feasts is, of course, the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, in which we recognize that our very being is given to us for communion with God and others, and we respond with praise and thanksgiving.

This lecture is provided courtesy of the Theopolis Institute.

25 minutes

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