Humour Archive

Scraps of humour research presented here for your consumption. Comments welcome.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Is Religious Humour an oxymoron?: Christianity

A teacher in a conservative Christian school asks, "What's grey and has a bushy tale and runs up trees?" and the one of the students puts up her hand and says "I know the answer is Jesus but it still sounds like a squirrel to me."

There is a common conception that humour and religion do not mix. Christians are seen as serious. This tradition of associating laughter with sacrilege goes all the way back to the time of St Chrysostom, around 390CE. Laughter was usually associated with the devil.

"This world is not a theatre in which we can laugh; and we are not assembled together in order to burst into peals of laughter, but to weep for our sins...It is not God who gives us the chance to play but the devil"
St John Chrysostom

"Christ never laughed"
St John Chrysostom

But more recently many scholars and anthropologists have looked at humorous aspects of religion. This does not mean that humour is used to undermine religion. There is a growing acknowledgement that faith and humour can coexist. Humour can be found within faith, and faith can be found using humour.

In fact, one author, Conrad Hyers (who has written many books on Christianity and humour) looks at the entire bible through a comic lens: he describes the creation of Eve as the creation of laughter; Sarah's son was called Isaac which means laughter. Hyers sees laughter as a gift from God. Throughout the bible he finds many traditional mechanisms of humor such as incongruence, reversal, collapsing of social order.

"Humor is a prelude to faith and Laughter is the beginning of prayer "
Reinhold Niebuhr, American Theologian

"Laughing at ourselves can help us remember our humanity"
Rev. William H. Joyner, Jr.

Many thanks:
- N.J. Vasantkumar's review in the journal 'Humor' of Conrad Hyers' And God Created Laughter:The Bible as Divine Comedy.

- http://www.thechapelofthecross.org/serms/s03-04/s04feb15.htm

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I believe Idle put it best:

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.

9:15 pm  
Blogger Hooch said...

nicely put

3:37 pm  
Blogger AJ said...

Eug - Visit. This. Now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brick_Testament

Oh, and everyone else too...

9:03 pm  
Blogger Hooch said...

hehe. AJ that's awesome. have you seen Flying Spaghetti Monster?

9:33 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love this!!
Want to print it out and put it on my wall!!!

10:32 am  

Post a Comment

<< Home