ABSTRACT
Joannes Lorinus notes that Chrysostom omits the example of Abraham 'who also laughed', as he himself conceded in his Commentary on Genesis,'Scholars,' he adds, 'normally praise that laughter and, condemn Sarah's - save for St Jerome, who believes that Abraham laughed out of a certain incredulity.' Lorinus leans towards the toleration of good, moderate, joyful laughter. Laughter from false gods is another matter. If 'laughter were vitiated by nature' it would never have been attributed to God in Holy Writ. The laughter which Scripture approves of is produced by joy and gaiety 'arising from good things in the mind. What Scripture frequently reproves is laughter when too effusive or importunate. Not only did wise Gentiles condemn intemperate guffawing, but so did the Fathers of the Church: Chrysostom provided the example of Christ, of whom we read that he wept but never laughed. Erasmus found the mocking God the Father of the Old Testament fully at work in the New.
