Laughter at the Foot of the Cross
eBook - ePub

Laughter at the Foot of the Cross

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Laughter at the Foot of the Cross

About this book

"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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Yes, you can access Laughter at the Foot of the Cross by Michael A. Screech in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & European Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Copyright
  3. Title Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. About the Author
  8. Contents
  9. List of Illustrations
  10. Foreword
  11. To the Reader
  12. A Note on the Translations and Abbreviations
  13. Footnote Disclaimer
  14. Introduction
  15. 1. Laughter is the Property of Man
  16. 2. Laughter in an Evil World
  17. 3. Christian Humanists
  18. 4. Jewish and Gentile ‘Schoolmasters’
  19. 5. The Mocking of the Crucified King
  20. 6. The Old Testament Gospel
  21. 7. Words and their Meanings
  22. 8. The Mocking of Christ in the Old Testament
  23. 9. Unholy Railing
  24. 10. Good Holy Railing
  25. 11. Diasyrm
  26. 12. A God who Laughs to Scorn
  27. 13. Erasmus on Diasyrm
  28. 14. The Laughter of Jesus and the Laughter of the Father in the New Testament
  29. 15. More Irony from Jesus
  30. 16. Pitiless Laughter at Ugliness
  31. 17. Ignorance or Madness? The Importance of a Gamma
  32. 18. Madman Laughs at Madman
  33. 19. Laughing at Christ and Laughing at Carabba
  34. 20. Laughing Back
  35. 21. Christ as Divine Madman
  36. 22. Madness Providentially Feigned by David: a Silenus
  37. 23. Theophylact and a Lunatic’s Chains
  38. 24. Laughing with the Great Cardinal of Saint-Cher
  39. 25. Jesus in Ecstatic Madness
  40. 26. Lessons in Exegesis
  41. 27. Plato and Christian Madness
  42. 28. Drunk with God and Drunk with Wine
  43. 29. Christ’s Mad Disciples: Erotic Madness
  44. 30. The Philosophy of Christ
  45. 31. The Foolishness of God
  46. 32. Socrates
  47. 33. Christian Laughter all but Nipped in the Bud: Eutrapely Condemned
  48. 34. The Gospel according to Lucian: Christianity is once again Stupid and Mad
  49. 35. Lucian in the Pulpit
  50. 36. A Taste of Lucianic Laughter in the Colloquies
  51. 37. Laughter in the Annotations
  52. 38. He who Calleth his Brother a Fool
  53. 39. Fools in Cap-and-Bells?
  54. 40. Caps and Bells Sneak In
  55. 41. Obscure Men
  56. 42. Dutch Wit, Gallic Licence and the Liturgical Year
  57. 43. Christian Wit and Christian Comedy: ‘The Great Jester of France’
  58. 44. Christian Laughter at Shrovetide
  59. 45. Seeking for Signs
  60. 46. Christian Laughter for Faithful Folk
  61. 47. Laughter at the Philosophy of Christ
  62. 48. God’s Coadjutors: Deed and Words and Christian Laughter
  63. 49. Laughing at Idolatry
  64. 50. Laughter and Christian Mythology
  65. 51. Gluttony
  66. 52. Realist Laughter: Laughter and Eternity
  67. 53. Charity and Joy
  68. Notes
  69. Index