ABSTRACT

"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 gu

chapter 1|5 pages

Laughter is the Property of Man

chapter 2|3 pages

Laughter in an Evil World

chapter 3|6 pages

Christian Humanists

chapter 4|2 pages

Jewish and Gentile 'Schoolmasters'

chapter 5|2 pages

The Mocking of the Crucified King

chapter 6|5 pages

The Old Testament Gospel

chapter 7|4 pages

Words and their Meanings

chapter 9|4 pages

Unholy Railing

chapter 10|3 pages

Good Holy Railing

chapter 11|2 pages

Diasyrm

chapter 12|2 pages

A God who Laughs to Scorn

chapter 13|3 pages

Erasmus on Diasyrm

chapter 15|2 pages

More Irony from Jesus

chapter 16|5 pages

Pitiless Laughter at Ugliness

chapter 17|7 pages

Ignorance or Madness? The Importance of a Gamma

More Socratic Laughter in the Philebus

chapter 18|10 pages

Madman Laughs at Madman

chapter 19|2 pages

Laughing at Christ and Laughing at Carabba

chapter 20|4 pages

Laughing Back

chapter 21|6 pages

Christ as Divine Madman

chapter 23|3 pages

Theophylact and a Lunatic's Chains

chapter 25|4 pages

Jesus in Ecstatic Madness

chapter 26|5 pages

Lessons in Exegesis

chapter 27|4 pages

Plato and Christian Madness

chapter 28|5 pages

Drunk with God and Drunk with Wine

chapter 29|6 pages

Christ's Mad Disciples: Erotic Madness

chapter 30|2 pages

The Philosophy of Christ

chapter 31|3 pages

The Foolishness of God

chapter 32|5 pages

Socrates

chapter 35|3 pages

Lucian in the Pulpit

chapter 37|15 pages

Laughter in the Annotations

chapter 38|10 pages

He who Calleth his Brother a Fool

chapter 39|8 pages

Fools in Cap-and-Bells?

chapter 40|11 pages

Caps and Bells Sneak In

chapter 41|6 pages

Obscure Men

chapter 44|7 pages

Christian Laughter at Shrovetide

chapter 45|7 pages

Seeking for Signs

chapter 46|15 pages

Christian Laughter for Faithful Folk

chapter 47|7 pages

Laughter at the Philosophy of Christ

chapter 49|8 pages

Laughing at Idolatry

chapter 50|3 pages

Laughter and Christian Mythology

chapter 51|4 pages

Gluttony

chapter 52|13 pages

Realist Laughter: Laughter and Eternity

chapter 53|9 pages

Charity and Joy