Theology, Comedy, Politics

Theology, Comedy, Politics

Author: Marcus Pound

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2019-09-03

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1506458351

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What relevance has comedy for the global crises of late-modernity and the theological critique thereof? Coming out of the experience of war, a generation of modern theologians such as Donald MacKinnon, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and, more recently, Rowan Williams, in their accommodation to literature, choose tragedy as the paradigm for theological understanding and ethics. By contrast, this book develops recent philosophical, anthropological, and psychoanalytical studies of humor to develop a theology of comedy. By deconstructing secular accounts of comedy it advances the argument that comedy is not only participatory of the divine, but that it should inform our thinking about liturgical, sacramental, and ecclesial life if we are to respond to the postmodern age in which having fun is an ideological imperative of market forces.


Under God

Under God

Author: Garry Wills

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007-09-25

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 141654335X

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One of our most distinguished political commentators--author of Reagan's America--offers a rich, original look at why religion and politics will never be separate in the United States.


What's So Funny About God?

What's So Funny About God?

Author: Steve Wilkens

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2019-12-31

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0830852670

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Jokes often touch on the biggest topics of our existence, but many Christians haven't taken humor seriously. This insightful yet delightful crash course from philosopher Steve Wilkens argues that viewing Scripture and theology through the lens of humor helps us understand the gospel and avoid the pitfalls of both naturalism and gnosticism, while facilitating a humble, honest, and appealing approach to faith.


Comedy Sex God

Comedy Sex God

Author: Pete Holmes

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2019-05-14

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0062803999

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Part autobiography, part philosophical inquiry, and part spiritual quest, Comedy Sex God is a hilarious, profound, and enlightening romp around the fertile mind of stand-up stand-out, podcast king, and HBO superstar Pete Holmes. Pete Holmes is a sold-out-every-night stand-up comedian with two HBO specials and the host of the hugely successful podcast You Made It Weird, and he was the creator-star of the hit HBO show Crashing. But it wasn’t always roses for Pete. Growing up, Pete was raised an evangelical Christian, but his religion taught him that being “bad”—smoking, drinking, having doubts or premarital sex—would get him sent to an eternity in hell. So, terrified of the God he loved, Pete devoted his life to being “good,” even marrying his first girlfriend at the age of twenty-two only to discover a few years later he was being cheated on. Thanks for nothing, God. Pete’s failed attempt at a picture-perfect life forced him to reexamine his beliefs, but neither atheism, nor Christianity, nor copious bottles of Yellow Tail led him to enlightenment. Pete longed for a model of faith that served him and his newfound uncertainties about the universe, so he embarked on a soul-seeking journey that continues to this day. Through encounters with mind-altering substances, honing his craft in front of thousands of his comedy fans, and spending time with savants like Ram Dass, Pete forged a new life—both spiritually and personally. Beautifully written and often completely hilarious—imagine Dass’s Be Here Now if penned by one of the funniest people alive—Comedy Sex God reveals a man at the top of his game and a seeker in search of the deeper meanings of life, love, and comedy.


Deep Comedy

Deep Comedy

Author: Peter J. Leithart

Publisher: Canon Press & Book Service

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1591280273

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In this short but stimulating work, Peter Leithart draws upon insights from history, theology, philosophy, and literature to connect two of the most glorious and unique truths of Christianity its hopeful eschatology and its doctrine of a dynamic, personal Trinity. First, Leithart shows that the biblical view of history is essentially comic and hopeful, in contrast to the classical Greco-Roman view, which is essentially and irredeemably tragic. Then he develops the same point by examining Greek philosophy and its descendants (including postmodernism) in contrast to orthodox Trinitarian theology. Finally, he shows how the tragic and comic worldviews have been reflected in literature, with discussions of Greek epics and two Shakespearean plays. The result is a tour through three thousand years of intellectual history that celebrates the living power of orthodoxy."


Theology in the Capitalocene

Theology in the Capitalocene

Author: Joerg Rieger

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Published: 2022-08-30

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1506431585

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Joerg Rieger takes a new look at the things that cause the growing destruction and death of people and the planet. And yet, understanding is only a start. Solidarity and the willingness to work at the intersections--the triad of gender, race, class, and more--must mark the work of theology.


Political Orthodoxies

Political Orthodoxies

Author: Cyril Hovorun

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2018-10-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1506453112

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Dispatches on nationalism and religion As an insider to church politics and a scholar of contemporary Orthodoxy, Cyril Hovorun outlines forms of political orthodoxy in Orthodox churches, past and present. Hovorun draws a big picture of religion being politicized and even weaponized. While Political Orthodoxies assesses phenomena such as nationalism and anti-Semitism, both widely associated with Eastern Christianity, Hovorun focuses on the theological underpinnings of the culture wars waged in eastern and southern Europe. The issues in these wars include monarchy and democracy, Orientalism and Occidentalism, canonical territory, and autocephaly. Wrought with peril, Orthodox culture wars have proven to turn toward bloody conflict, such as in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014. Accordingly, this book explains the aggressive behavior of Russia toward its neighbors and the West from a religious standpoint. The spiritual revival of Orthodoxy after the collapse of Communism made the Orthodox church in Russia, among other things, an influential political protagonist, which in some cases goes ahead of the Kremlin. Following his identification and analysis, Hovorun suggests ways to bring political Orthodoxy back to the apostolic and patristic track.


Comedy, Tragedy, and Religion

Comedy, Tragedy, and Religion

Author: John Morreall

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 1999-05-27

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1438413629

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CHOICE2000 Outstanding Academic Title Comedy, tragedy, and religion have been intertwined since ancient Greece, where comedy and tragedy arose as religious rituals. This groundbreaking book analyzes the worldviews of tragedy and comedy, and compares each with the world's major religions. Morreall contrasts the tragic and comic along twenty psychological and social dimensions and uses these to analyze both Eastern and Western traditions. Although no religion embodies a purely tragic or comic vision of life, some are mostly tragic and others mostly comic. In Eastern religions, Morreall finds no robust tragic vision but does find significant comic features, especially in Taoism and Zen Buddhism. In the Western monotheistic tradition, there are some comic features in the early Bible, but by the late Hebrew Bible, the tragic vision dominates. Two millennia have done little to reverse that tragic vision in Judaism. Christianity, on the other hand, has shown both tragic and comic features—Morreall writes of the Calvinist vision and the Franciscan vision—but in the contemporary era comic features have come to dominate. The author also explores Islam, and finds it has neither a comic nor a tragic vision. And, among new religions, those which emphasize the personal self come close to having an exclusively comic vision of life.


Single, Gay, Christian

Single, Gay, Christian

Author: Gregory Coles

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2017-08-22

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 0830890939

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In an age where neither society nor the church knows what to do with gay Christians, Greg Coles shares his story—a story about a boy in love with Jesus who, at the fateful onset of puberty, realized his sexual attractions were persistently and exclusively for other guys. This honest, hopeful account shows life through one man's eyes and assures all people: "You are not a mistake."


Theologies of Ancient Greek Religion

Theologies of Ancient Greek Religion

Author: Esther Eidinow

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-08-03

Total Pages: 443

ISBN-13: 1316715213

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Studied for many years by scholars with Christianising assumptions, Greek religion has often been said to be quite unlike Christianity: a matter of particular actions (orthopraxy), rather than particular beliefs (orthodoxies). This volume dares to think that, both in and through religious practices and in and through religious thought and literature, the ancient Greeks engaged in a sustained conversation about the nature of the gods and how to represent and worship them. It excavates the attitudes towards the gods implicit in cult practice and analyses the beliefs about the gods embedded in such diverse texts and contexts as comedy, tragedy, rhetoric, philosophy, ancient Greek blood sacrifice, myth and other forms of storytelling. The result is a richer picture of the supernatural in ancient Greece, and a whole series of fresh questions about how views of and relations to the gods changed over time.