I came across a short review today in Religion BookLine of a new book, Jesus Laughed: The Redemptive Power of Humor by Robert Darden.
The blurb about Darden's book reads, in part, "In an often breezy style, this historical, biblical, philological and psychological treatise is 'a call to reclaim Holy Laughter for the church.' Darden examines the ingredients of humor and ferrets out what's funny in scripture. After documenting how the Church lost its sense of humor, he champions the reasons 'the redeemed ought to look more like it.' Darden's reach is broad, embracing first-rate thinkers and writers such as Karl Barth, Elton Trueblood, C.S. Lewis, Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott ..."
I look forward to reading Jesus Laughed, due out in September. While you await the release of this new book, you might prepare for it by reading an article I wrote called "Did Jesus Laugh?"
2 comments:
An interesting subject. I have no trouble imagining a laughing Jesus. But it seems more odd to attribute it to God before the incarnation. Certainly, it's His creation, but so are other things that He didn't share in before the word became flesh. Laughter is rooted in an experience of the passage of time (to proudly adopt Henri Bergson's explanation) and God's omniscience and timelessness seems to put Him kinda outside of humor as well. So it seems to me.
Thanks for the comment. Prior to the Incarnation there was some sort of fellowship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as there still is, but as to the question of humor in relation to this, I can't say I've given it much thought. It seems to me that humor would be rooted in God's nature and, as such, there must have been some sort of joyful interaction, perhaps something akin to humor, within the Trinity. But I'm already bringing my conception of time into the matter.
At any rate, in relation to Jesus, I do think he laughed. As I point out in my article, I doubt you could get that many guys together without having some sort of laughter taking place.
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