| Description |
1 online resource : illustrations |
| Contents |
List of Illustrations; To the Reader; A Note on the Translations and Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Laughter is the Property of Man; 2. Laughter in an Evil World; 3. Christian Humanists; 4. Jewish and Gentile 'Schoolmasters'; 5. The Mocking of the Crucified King; 6. The Old Testament Gospel; 7. Words and their Meanings; 8. The Mocking of Christ in the Old Testament; 9. Unholy Railing; 10. Good Holy Railing; 11. Diasyrm; 12. A God who Laughs to Scorn; 13. Erasmus on Diasyrm; 14. The Laughter of Jesus and the Laughter of the Father in the New Testament; 15. More Irony from Jesus |
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16. Pitiless Laughter at Ugliness17. Ignorance or Madness? The Importance of a Gamma; 18. Madman Laughs at Madman; 19. Laughing at Christ and Laughing at Carabba; 20. Laughing Back; 21. Christ as Divine Madman; 22. Madness Providentially Feigned by David: a Silenus; 23. Theophylact and a Lunatic's Chains; 24. Laughing with the Great Cardinal of Saint-Cher; 25. Jesus in Ecstatic Madness; 26. Lessons in Exegesis; 27. Plato and Christian Madness; 28. Drunk with God and Drunk with Wine; 29. Christ's Mad Disciples: Erotic Madness; 30. The Philosophy of Christ; 31. The Foolishness of God |
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32. Socrates33. Christian Laughter all but Nipped in the Bud: Eutrapely Condemned; 34. The Gospel according to Lucian: Christianity is once again Stupid and Mad; 35. Lucian in the Pulpit; 36. A Taste of Lucianic Laughter in the Colloquies; 37. Laughter in the Annotations; 38. He who Calleth his Brother a Fool; 39. Fools in Cap-and-Bells?; 40. Caps and Bells Sneak In; 41. Obscure Men; 42. Dutch Wit, Gallic Licence and the Liturgical Year; 43. Christian Wit and Christian Comedy: 'The Great Jester of France'; 44. Christian Laughter at Shrovetide; 45. Seeking for Signs |
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46. Christian Laughter for Faithful Folk47. Laughter at the Philosophy of Christ; 48. God's Coadjutors: Deed and Words and Christian Laughter; 49. Laughing at Idolatry; 50. Laughter and Christian Mythology; 51. Gluttony; 52. Realist Laughter: Laughter and Eternity; 53. Charity and Joy; Index |
| Summary |
"Christian laughter is a maze: you could easily get snarled up within it." So says Michael A. Screech in his note to readers preceding this collection of fifty-three elegant and pithy essays. As Screech reveals, the question of whether laughter is acceptable to the god of the Old and New Testaments is a dangerous one. But we are fortunate in our guide: drawing on his immense knowledge of the classics and of humanists like Erasmus and Rabelais-who used Plato and Aristotle to interpret the Gospels-and incorporating the thoughts of Aesop, Calvin, Lucian of Samosata, Luther, Socrates |
| Notes |
"First published by Allen Lane the Penguin Press 1997. Published in the United States by Westview Press in 1999. A version of the foreword was originally published in the Times Literary Supplement in 1998"--Title page verso |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Online resource; title from PDF title page (Ebsco, viewed April 7, 2015) |
| Subject |
Laughter -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
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RELIGION -- Christian Theology -- Anthropology.
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Laughter -- Religious aspects -- Christianity
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Grafton, Anthony, writer of foreword
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| ISBN |
9780226245256 |
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022624525X |
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