Divine Laughter: Preaching and the Serious Business of Humor - Softcover

Karl N. Jacobson; Rolf A. Jacobson; Will Willimon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1506468675 ISBN 13: 9781506468679

Publisher: Fortress Press, 2022

Synopsis

Comedians tend to view the world somewhat askew or askance, and that view--a kind of hermeneutical lens for discerning the comedic in daily life--serves to frame, reframe, and even de-frame reality. Preachers do the same, viewing the world askance through a theological lens of discerning God in daily life. That theological view allows one to preach hope in the face of despair, seeing the world in terms of God's justice and declaring the promise of life out of death. Divine Laughter: Preaching and the Serious Business of Humor looks closely at both the cultural phenomenon of stand-up comedy and theories of humor, asking what preachers can learn from both. Karl N. Jacobson and Rolf A. Jacobson offer preachers a means of growth in their art and an approach to reading Scripture both for its humor and through the lens of humor. The book models approaches to the biblical text that allow the Bible to be funny and that bring humor to the text. Divine Laughter brings the task of preaching into conversation with both the comedic parts of the Bible and the theological parts of the comedic, in order to bring a new kind of life to preaching. As a serious look at humor and laughter in the Bible, the book explores the theological implications of what it means if we think of God, Jesus, and even the Holy Spirit as filled with laughter. Preachers are invited to wonder at and chuckle their way through examples of God's laughter in the Bible, thinking about what that means for God's people, for the life of faith, and for preaching to God's people.

About this title

About the Author

Karl N. Jacobson is senior pastor at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Minneapolis, MN, and a colloquy advisor in Luther Seminary's DMin program. Karl has written widely on the Psalms, podcasts on faith practices and Scripture at "Imbibleing," and blogs about the Bible and popular culture at bibpopcult.wordpress.com. He is the author of Memories of Asaph: Mnemohistory and the Psalms of Asaph and co-author of Crazy Book: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms, Revised and Expanded Edition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1506468675
• ISBN 13: 9781506468679
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 152