Laughter At The Foot Of The Cross
Title | Laughter At The Foot Of The Cross PDF eBook |
Author | M.a. Screech |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 259 |
Release | 2019-04-09 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0429721579 |
"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
A Different Kind of Laughter
Title | A Different Kind of Laughter PDF eBook |
Author | Andy Cook |
Publisher | Kregel Publications |
Pages | 164 |
Release | 2002-08 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 9780825423871 |
Discovering joy from the most difficult moments of Jesus' life, this study points readers to a solid life replete with a different kind of laughter—the kind that survives life's deepest trials.
God at the Improv
Title | God at the Improv PDF eBook |
Author | Anthony J. Petrotta |
Publisher | Wipf and Stock Publishers |
Pages | 169 |
Release | 2020-12-17 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1532690835 |
Asking if there is humor in any religious text might seem blasphemous to many readers. Religious texts are there to instruct us, not entertain us. Religious texts are serious works, not frivolous. However, if part of being human entails having a sense of humor, then it would be more surprising indeed for Scripture not to have humor. Humor instructs us as much as it entertains us. God at the Improv seeks to show that being religious and being humorous are not opposites, but actually work in tandem to enhance and enliven our faith and practice.
The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is to Come, Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream
Title | The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is to Come, Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream PDF eBook |
Author | John Bunyan |
Publisher | |
Pages | 284 |
Release | 1787 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
A Theology of Nonsense
Title | A Theology of Nonsense PDF eBook |
Author | Josephine Gabelman |
Publisher | Lutterworth Press |
Pages | 238 |
Release | 2017-10-26 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0718847342 |
There is within all theological utterances something of the ridiculous, perhaps more so in Christianity, given its proclivity for the paradoxical and the childlike. Few theologians are willing to discuss how consent to the Christian doctrine often requires a faith that goes beyond reason. There seems to be a fear that the association of theology with the absurd will give fuel to the sceptic's refrain: 'You can't seriously believe in all that nonsense.' Josephine Gabelman considers the legitimacy of the sceptic's objection and explores the possibility that an idea can be contrary to rationality and also true and meaningful using the systematic analysis of central stylistic features of literary non sense such as Lewis Carroll's Alice stories. Gabelman sets up a nonsense theology by considering the practical and evangelical ramifications of associating Christian faith with nonsense literature and, conversely, the value of relating theological principles to the study of literary nonsense.Ultimately, Gabelman says, faith is always a risk and a strictly rational apologetic misrepresents the nature of Christian truth.
A Stranger in the House of God
Title | A Stranger in the House of God PDF eBook |
Author | John Koessler |
Publisher | Zondervan |
Pages | 227 |
Release | 2009-08-30 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0310864216 |
Growing up the son of agnostics, John Koessler saw a Catholic church on one end of the street and a Baptist on the other. In the no-man’s land between the two, this curious outside wondered about the God they worshipped—and began a lifelong search to comprehend the grace and mystery of God. A Stranger in the House of God addresses fundamental questions and struggles faced by spiritual seekers and mature believers. Like a contemporary Pilgrim’s Progress, it traces the author’s journey and explores his experiences with both charismatic and evangelical Christianity. It also describes his transformation from religious outsider to ordained pastor. John Koessler provides a poignant and often humorous window into the interior of the soul as he describes his journey from doubt and struggle with the church to personal faith
Laughter
Title | Laughter PDF eBook |
Author | Anca Parvulescu |
Publisher | MIT Press |
Pages | 227 |
Release | 2010-08-27 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0262514745 |
Uncovering an archive of laughter, from the forbidden giggle to the explosive guffaw. Most of our theories of laughter are not concerned with laughter. Rather, their focus is the laughable object, whether conceived of as the comic, the humorous, jokes, the grotesque, the ridiculous, or the ludicrous. In Laughter, Anca Parvulescu proposes a return to the materiality of the burst of laughter itself. She sets out to uncover an archive of laughter, inviting us to follow its rhythms and listen to its tones. Historically, laughter—especially the passionate burst of laughter—has often been a faux pas. Manuals for conduct, abetted by philosophical treatises and literary and visual texts, warned against it, offering special injunctions to ladies to avoid jollity that was too boisterous. Returning laughter to the history of the passions, Parvulescu anchors it at the point where the history of the grimacing face meets the history of noise. In the civilizing process that leads to laughter's “falling into disrepute,” as Nietzsche famously put it, we can see the formless, contorted face in laughter being slowly corrected into a calm, social smile. How did the twentieth century laugh? Parvulescu points to a gallery of twentieth-century laughers and friends of laughter, arguing that it is through Georges Bataille that the century laughed its most distinct laugh. In Bataille's wake, laughter becomes the passion at the heart of poststructuralism. Looking back at the century from this vantage point, Parvulescu revisits four of its most challenging projects: modernism, the philosophical avant-gardes, feminism, and cinema. The result is an overview of the twentieth century as seen through the laughs that burst at some of its most convoluted junctures.