Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to provide a critical overview of works in English that have, in the last 50 years or so, explicitly addressed, or seem particularly relevant to, the question of the relation of humour and religion and which have developed, if not a full-bodied theory, at least an approach to the topic. The scant attention given to humour and religion can be related, I argue, to a universalizing tendency in our understanding of the relation of religion and humour, in which religion has tended to be conceived in identification with the ‘serious’, such that humour’s entanglement with it has been obscured. A greater appreciation of their entanglement might well enrich our understanding of both terms. This chapter proposes that conceiving of religion as involving a complex interplay of congruity and incongruity might provide a basis for more fully exploring the various relations and meanings of humour and religion in different cultural and historical contexts.
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Notes
- 1.
Gardner, ‘Humor and Religion’, 4194. Compare here Saroglou, ‘Religion’ and Cooper, ‘Humor’, 1007–1038.
- 2.
Gardner, ‘Humor and Religion’, 4194.
- 3.
Useful guides to some of the key issues here are Segal, ‘Classification and Comparison’, 1175–1188 and Smith, ‘Religion, Religions, Religious’, 179–196.
- 4.
HarperCollins Dictionary, ‘Religion, definition of’, 893–894.
- 5.
Unless we are in search of an essence, I do not think incongruity theory rules out the insights of superiority and relief theories that also involve, I think, the recognition of incongruity.
- 6.
See, for instance, Lippitt, Humour and Irony in Kierkegaard’s Thought; Götz, Faith, Humor, and Paradox; Arbuckle, Laughing with God; and Martin, Between Heaven and Mirth.
- 7.
See here, for example, Tamer, Humour in Arabic Culture; Raj, Sacred Play; and Geybels, Humour and Religion.
- 8.
See, for example, Screech, Laughter; Siebeck, Rabbinic Parodies; and Lindvall, God Mocks.
- 9.
Bolle, Freedom, 7. Bolle also treats the relation of humour and myth in Bolle, Enticement, 54–59 and Bolle, ‘Myth’, 6362–6365.
- 10.
For a discussion of the difficulties involved in understanding the humour of the past, even when only a few years have passed, see Gardner, ‘The Blessing’, 35–75.
- 11.
Bolle, Freedom, xii–xiii, 5–7.
- 12.
Ibid., 36.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Ibid., 48–49; Bolle, ‘Myth’, 6363–6364; Bolle, Enticement, 55.
- 15.
Ibid., 41–70; Bolle, Enticement, 54–59; and Bolle, ‘Myth’, 6362–6365.
- 16.
Bolle, Freedom, 63.
- 17.
Ibid., 44.
- 18.
O’Flagherty, Implied Spider, 12–14. Patton, ‘The Frogs’, also discusses one humorous hymn and provides references to discussions of the possible roles of humour in Rig Veda.
- 19.
Huizinga, Homo Ludens, 106–107.
- 20.
Ibid., 5–6.
- 21.
Ibid., 5.
- 22.
See here Huizinga, Homo Ludens, 5–6, 105–118, and 136–145.
- 23.
O’Flagherty, Other People’s Myths, 28–29.
- 24.
Ibid., 33.
- 25.
Ibid., 25. For a similar ethnographic example, see Doniger, Implied Spider, 2.
- 26.
O’Flaherty, ‘Inside and Outside’, 95.
- 27.
See, for instance, Colin Trumbull’s discussion of how the Mbuti of Central Africa often listen to many of their myths with a sense of ‘amusement’. Trumbull, Wayward Servants, 247.
- 28.
See Gardner, ‘Humor and Religion’, 4194–4199; Gilhus, Laughing Gods, 14–42.
- 29.
Hyers, ‘Introduction’, 3.
- 30.
For related discussions, see, Morreall, ‘The Rejection of Humor’, 243–265 and Gilhus, Laughing Gods, 99–101.
- 31.
Hyers, ‘The Comic Profanation of the Sacred’, 9–10. Anton Zijderveld has made a similar point in Reality in a Looking-Glass, 1, 40. Zijderveld, however, does not elaborate on his suggestion at length.
- 32.
Hyers, ‘Dialectic’, 209–210.
- 33.
Hyers, Zen and the Comic Spirit; Hyers, The Laughing Buddha.
- 34.
Hyers, Comic Vision and the Christian Faith.
- 35.
Hyers, And God Created Laughter.
- 36.
Hyers, Spirituality of Comedy.
- 37.
Campbell, The Hero, 45.
- 38.
See here Hyers, ‘Comic Profanation’, 24–25.
- 39.
Among his many works, see Morreall, Taking Laughter Seriously, Philosophy of Laughter, and Comic Relief.
- 40.
Morreall, Comedy, Tragedy, and Religion, 13. See here also Morreall, ‘Philosophy and Religion’, 211–242.
- 41.
Morreall, Comedy, Tragedy, and Religion, 4.
- 42.
Ibid., 7–20.
- 43.
Ibid., 21–40.
- 44.
Ibid., 42.
- 45.
Ibid., 147–154.
- 46.
Gardner, ‘Humor and Religion’, 4197.
- 47.
Ibid., 48.
- 48.
Ibid., 128–129. For accounts of Islam that supply many examples to counter Morreall’s generalizations, see Weber, ‘Humor and Islam’, 4210–4217 as well as the chapters in Tamer, Humor in Arabic Culture.
- 49.
Though he does not make this point, Morreall’s book can certainly be read as suggesting this strategy.
- 50.
Apte, Humor and Laughter, 16.
- 51.
Ibid., 25.
- 52.
Ibid., 177–211.
- 53.
See here also Gardner, ‘Humor and Religion’, 4198–4199 and Weber, ‘Humor and Islam’, 4211–4212.
- 54.
Apte, Humor and Laughter, 151.
- 55.
Ibid., 151–152.
- 56.
Ibid., 155.
- 57.
Ibid., 169–175.
- 58.
Ibid., 176.
- 59.
Ibid., 236.
- 60.
Ibid., 233. Unfortunately, for my concerns at least, O’Flaherty does not use the term ‘humour’ in the passage he cites. But like me, he seems to have sensed some connection with humour in O’Flaherty’s approach to myth.
- 61.
Apte, ‘My Research’.
- 62.
Driessen, ‘Humour, Laughter, and the Field’, 222–237. For more recent overviews, see Drissen, ‘Anthropology of Humor’, 416–419 and Morton, ‘Anthropology’, 43–47.
- 63.
Bremmer and Roodenburg, ‘Introduction’, 1–10.
- 64.
Gilhus, ‘Religion, Laughter, and the Ludicrous’, 257–259.
- 65.
Ibid., 273.
- 66.
Gilhus, Laughing Gods, 1.
- 67.
Ibid., 5.
- 68.
See here, Gardner, ‘Humor and Religion’, 4199–4201.
- 69.
Gilhus, Laughing Gods, 3.
- 70.
Ibid., 4.
- 71.
Ibid., 5–6.
- 72.
Ibid., 1.
- 73.
Ibid., 99–101.
- 74.
Ibid., 109–115.
- 75.
Berger’s autobiographical Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist provides an informative overview of his intellectual career.
- 76.
For suggestions along these lines, see Felmate, ‘The Sacred Comedy’, 531–550.
- 77.
See Berger’s discussion of Schutz in Redeeming Laughter, 7–13.
- 78.
Berger, Precarious Vision, 217.
- 79.
Berger, Rumor of Angels, x. This reference is to the new introduction included in the enlarged 1990 edition of the book.
- 80.
Berger, Rumor of Angels, 77–81.
- 81.
Berger, Heretical Imperative, x–xi.
- 82.
Berger, Redeeming Laughter, x.
- 83.
Ibid., 6.
- 84.
Ibid., xi.
- 85.
Ibid., 33–34.
- 86.
Ibid., 205.
- 87.
Gerrtz, ‘Religion as a Cultural System’, 111.
- 88.
Ibid., 114. Gilhus draws upon this passage to illustrate her understanding of the relation of religion and the ludicrous. Gilhus, ‘Religion, Laughter and the Ludicrous’, 271.
- 89.
Ibid., 115.
- 90.
For overviews of Smith’s work, see Gill, ‘No Place’ and Segal, ‘Classification’. For an overview of his work by Smith himself, see Smith, “When the Chips are Down’, 1–60.
- 91.
See here, for example, Smith’s influential essay on ritual, ‘Bare Facts’, 53–65.
- 92.
Smith, ‘Map’, 293–297. For further suggestions along these lines, see Chidester, ‘Incongruity’, 58–72.
- 93.
Raj, Sacred Play.
- 94.
Gardner, ‘Humor and Religion’, 4194.
- 95.
Gardner, ‘Reflections’, 209–228.
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Gardner, R.A. (2020). Humour and Religion: New Directions?. In: Derrin, D., Burrows, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Humour, History, and Methodology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56646-3_8
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