This book identifies the significance of the body through a feminist reconceptualisation of laughter as a means of insight. It positions itself within the emerging scholarship on religion and humour but distinguishes itself by moving away from the emphasis on humour and instead focuses on the place and role of laughter. Through a feminist reading of laughter, which is grounded in the philosophical and psychological works of William James, this book emphasises the importance of the body to offer an exploration of laughter as a means of insight. In doing so, it challenges the classificatory orders of knowledge by recognising and arguing for the value of the body in the creation of knowledge and understanding. To demonstrate the centrality of the body for insight laughter, and thus the creation of knowledge, this book engages with laughter within three thematic areas: religious experience, gendered experiences of laughter, and the ethics of laughter. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in religious studies, theology, gender studies, humour studies, philosophy, and the history of ideas.

Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins analyses how laughter has been used as a symbol in myths, rituals and festivals of Western religions, and has thus been inscribed in religious discourse. The Mesopotamian Anu, the Israelite Jahweh, the Greek Dionysos, the Gnostic Christ and the late modern Jesus were all laughing gods. Through their laughter, gods prove both their superiority and their proximity to humans. In this comprehensive study, Professor Gilhus examines the relationship between corporeal human laughter and spiritual divine laughter from c`ussical antiquity, to the Christian West and the modern era. She combines the study of the history of religion with social-scientific approaches, to provide an original and pertinent exploration of a universal human phenomenon, and its significance for the development of religions.

Offering a feminist perspective on the significance of the body in the context of religious life and practice, this treatise examines the evidence, ranging from the novels of Toni Morrison to the paintings of Frida Kahlo.

The laughter of delight has gone unheard in the Western tradition. This work brings new light to the notion, and has a consistent leitmotif: the delighted laughter of the matriarch Sarah in the book of Genesis, when she gives birth to her son Isaac. This laughter is "heard" through biblical commentaries and twentieth-century theorists of laughter.

Making God Laugh examines the claim that we can speak with divine authority about God's plans for us and the world. Such arrogance must surely make God laugh! But its effects on our relationships with other religions are no laughing matter. Neither is the claim that God has made us the center of the universe which has legitimized the exploitation of the earth's natural resources. Anne Primavesi argues that the time has come to replace human arrogance with ecological humility and an understanding of ourselves as members of the whole community of life on earth.

Cuts through traditional debates to argue that religious phenomena are cocreated by human cognition and a generative spiritual power.

Portrays a range of medieval heroines to ascertain how humor might have been used and enjoyed by medieval women