Items related to Laughter at the Foot of the Cross

Laughter at the Foot of the Cross - Softcover

Screech, Michael A.; Grafton, Anthony

 
9780226245119: Laughter at the Foot of the Cross
Softcover
ISBN 10: 022624511X ISBN 13: 9780226245119
Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2015

Synopsis

“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 guide: drawing on his immense knowledge of the classics and of humanists like Erasmus and Rabelais—who used Plato and Aristotle to interpret the Gospels—and incorporating the thoughts of Aesop, Calvin, Lucian of Samosata, Luther, Socrates, and others, Screech shows that Renaissance thinkers revived ancient ideas about what inspires laughter and whether it could ever truly be innocent. As Screech argues, in the minds of Renaissance scholars, laughter was to be taken very seriously. Indeed, in an era obsessed with heresy and reform, this most human of abilities was no laughing matter.

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About the Author

Michael A. Screech is an emeritus fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

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Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Publication date
2015
Language
English
ISBN 10 
022624511X
ISBN 13 
9780226245119
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
352