ABSTRACT
Numerous statements by early Church Fathers, medieval theologians, and monastic leaders across the centuries have fortified a view of laughter as disrupting piety, inviting sin, and displeasing God. The Christian ecclesiastics and theologians who gave laughter a bad name did not have to look very far to find corroboration for their solemn stance. The Bible contains a few pithy pronouncements in opposition to mirth: Sorrow is better than laughter: For by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. In addition to leaning on scriptural passages denouncing laughter, the early Church Fathers were also motivated to draw a line against what they saw as pagan sensuality. Moreover, the Christian authorities suspicious of laughter could always point to Jesus, who never once laughed according to all the available evidence from the gospels, a fact emphasized by Saint Chrysostom in the fourth century.
