S1E12: Humor

The Theology Of...

Why did the chicken cross the road? Because he wasn’t a very good Samaritan! Benjamin and Ryker spend this episode of the podcast wondering how in the world theology can relate to this joke and others like it.

Show Notes (The Theology of Humor) S1:E12

Table of Contents & Timestamps:

(0:00-2:19) Introduction

(2:19-13:56) What is Humor?

(14:14-20:00) Is God Funny?

(20:00-23:06) Is Jesus Funny?

(23:06-27:10) Is the Bible Funny?

(27:28-30:15) Should we be Funny?

(30:15-34:50) Fallen/Redeemed Humor

(34:50-38:41) Improv

(39:02-42:00) Recap

(42:00-44:11) Resources

(44:11-45:04) A Couple Jokes

(45:04-47:06) Outro

Key Takeaways:

• Humor is amusingly subverted expectations, probably
  
• The Gospel is full of paradoxes which are mysterious but not illogical
  
• God the Father is probably humorous, but His jokes go way over our head
  
• Both Jesus and Scripture are really funny at times, but we should be careful not to anachronistically turn them into standup comedy
  
• Fallen humor is rotten, low-hanging fruit, redeemed humor is fresh, high-hanging fruit
  
• Godly humor is humbling, community-building, and perspective-resetting
  

Resources:

• The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Was-Thursday-Nightmare/dp/0141191465

• “Does God Have a Sense of Humour?” by Stephen Masty

https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/01/god-sense-humour.html

• “Beyond a Joke? The Place of Humour in the Christian Life” by Susanna Baldwin

https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/beyond-a-joke-humour-in-the-christian-life/

• “Humor as Theology” by Scot McKnight

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2019/12/31/humor-as-theology/

Music:

“Beach Trance” - Luke Hall

“Funky” - Luke Hall

“Experimental Jazz” - Tyler Hall

Follow Luke:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0nvVzvhz2ATr1TlLS3kEM0?si=TO4CR2lyRbmE-wpdVatwUg

https://soundcloud.com/c_luke_hall

Follow Tyler:

https://www.tjaudioengineering.com/

https://www.facebook.com/tylerhallphotography/

https://www.facebook.com/tjaudioengineering

Reach out to us with any suggestions, thoughts, or love!

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Copyright Benjamin Corneliusen & Ryker Lutjens 2020. All rights reserved.