Why are Anglicans such bad chess players? Because they don't know the difference between a Bishop and a Queen. Did you hear about the new liberal branch of the Church of England? It has six commandments and four suggestions. This book is packed with (mostly) clean, good-natured jokes, riddles and funny stories old and new about clergy, churches and Christianity. Get into the humour habit and prepare yourself for the 'laughter-life'! Unlike most church joke books, it is from a British rather than American perspective, but it will appeal to anybody looking for jokes for sermons, parish magazines etc or who would just like a good laugh at church life.

A surprisingly reverent collection of religious humor clean enough to be used in the pulpit. St. Peter jokes, mock sermons, church bulletin misprints and age-old denominational rivalries are all here. Illustrated.

Religion is far too important to be taken seriously all the time--so says author Tom Sheridan, who in The Book of Catholic Jokes invites readers to laugh along with him and remember that faith can be--and should be--fun. Sheridan begins by discussing the importance of laughter and the relationship of humor to religion before launching into hilarious jokes. After all, Jesus said, "Unless you become like children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."

As Pope Benedict XVI has said, "A writer once said that angels can fly because they don't take themselves too seriously. Maybe we could also fly a bit if we didn't think we were so important." Imagine the pontiff, now in his eighties and undoubtedly feeling the pains of growing older himself, cracking a joke about it to one of the cardinals in the Vatican. So must every married couple do as they go about the business of maintaining a loving, committed relationship...but discover that they still get on each other's nerves occasionally.Here is The Third Book of Catholic Jokes, chosen and told by Deacon Tom Sheridan, the former editor of The Catholic New World, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago. He is now retired and living with his wife in Florida. The book also features a Foreword by Father James Martin, SJ, the culture editor of America magazine and the author of Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life.This edition of this popular series of books focuses on the universal--and often hilarious--human experience of relating to one another and growing old together. These stories, jokes, lists, and one-liners are mostly about lay people and are told from a "Catholic" (that is, Roman Catholic) or a "catholic" (that is, universal and about everyone) perspective. They are "clean" and not "mean" and are certainly not intended to offend anyone of any faith or situation in life. But if we can't make fun of ourselves about the difficulties of growing older or trying to maintain our most intimate relationships over a lifetime, then how can we ever expect to "fly a bit"?

Whoever said Christians shouldn't enjoy a good laugh now and then? Here's a fantastic new collection of nearly five hundred jokes that turn the mirror back on ourselves--with hilarious results. The World's Greatest Collection of Church Jokes contains scores of funnies involving pastors, deacons, Sunday school teachers, pew sitters, and kids--all of them clean, funny, good-natured, and often times true to life. Organized into categories, The World's Greatest Collection of Church Jokes is perfect for personal reading or preparing sermons and speeches.

A collection of one-liners, knock-knock jokes, and tongue twisters.

This book traces the development of religious comedy and leverages that history to justify today’s uses of religious humor in all of its manifestations, including irreverent jokes. It argues that regulating humor is futile and counterproductive, illustrating this point with a host of comedic examples. Humor is a powerful rhetorical tool for those who advocate and for those who satirize religious ideals. The book presents a compelling argument about the centrality of humor to the story of Western Christianity’s cultural and artistic development since the Middle Ages, taking a multi-disciplinary approach that combines literary criticism, religious studies, philosophy, theology, and social science. After laying out the conceptual framework in Part 1, Part 2 analyzes key works of religious comedy across the ages from Dante to the present, and it samples the breadth of contemporary religious humor from Brad Stine to Robin Williams, and from Monty Python to South Park. Using critical, historical, and conceptual lenses, the book exposes and overturns past attempts by church authorities, scholars, and commentators to limit and control laughter based on religious, ideological, or moral criteria. This is a unique look into the role of humor and comedy around religion. It will, therefore, appeal to readers interested in multiple fields of inquiry, including religious studies, humor studies, the history of ideas, and comparative literature.