sparksrevsusan
Författare till Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor
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Medlemmar
Recensioner
Statistik
- Verk
- 1
- Medlemmar
- 70
- Popularitet
- #248,179
- Betyg
- 3.7
- Recensioner
- 1
- ISBN
- 2
The author, Susan Sparks, is a Baptist minister and stand-up comedian, and the premise of the book is that our spiritual lives would benefit from less self-conscious gravitas and more joy and laughter. For someone raised (like Sparks) in a stern hellfire-and-brimstone tradition where 'people never, ever laughed in church,' that could be a game-changer as far as spirituality goes. Personally I follow a broadly Pagan path with a lot of cheerful borrowing from different traditions and a lot of ribald humour about Maypoles, ladies' front bottoms, etc. This book is a bit like a 101 class and I'm in a religious group that's, like, professionally ridiculous.
On the other hand I also feel that, while often joyful, spiritual life isn't all hilarity, and that sometimes we go to church precisely for silence and solemnity. In which case, an event like Sparks relates wherein a little boy in her congregation belches loudly into the pulpit microphone during a sermon on Jonah and the whale (he's playing the part of the whale) would be more obnoxious than whimsical or charming. Joy and laughter-with in the face of suffering and oppression is potentially revolutionary stuff; laughter to the exclusion of all other emotional response is immature.
So, not hugely relevant to me as a reader, and also kind of one-sided.… (mer)