About book Between Heaven And Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, And Laughter Are At The Heart Of The Spiritual Life (2011)
Father Martin argues that the spiritually-awakened life is above all one of joy. He is responding to what he sees as an over-emphasis on seriousness in religion—Catholicism, in his case, though he’s insistent that he sees the mistake in most religious traditions. While there is a place for sadness, he wants to emphasize that the lives of the great religious figures—Jesus, Abraham, the saints—are above all marked by joyful communion with the Divine.His style is easy and anecdotal; he insists that his purpose is not to produce a scholarly study of joy and humor, but a popular appreciation of the same. And he succeeds, for the most part. The book, however, is so heavily anecdotal that it often feels like he is simply rushing from story to story, tying them together with somewhat platitudinous remarks on how wonderful it is to have joy. As a result, the whole thing feels a little surface-level (compared, certainly, to a book like "Surprised by Laughter: the Comic World of C.S. Lewis" or anything by Chesterton).That said, this book is charming and makes an interesting, if not profound, case for the place of laughter in the religious life. Written by a Jesuit priest, Between Heaven and Mirth makes the case that mirth and all its companions—joy, fun, humor, laughter, joking—are an essential part of the spiritual life. Within his own tradition, he gives examples from Scripture, the lives of the saints, and the lives of popes, but he also draws on arguments and stories from people of other traditions, including Protestantism, Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism. I often found his examples of humor from Scripture to be a stretch. I felt he repeatedly classified as “funny” that which is merely ironic, hyperbolic, or bizarre, but I certainly don’t disagree with his central premise, and it is good for an author to remind readers that the Christian life is meant to be a life of joy. Between Heaven and Mirth was a fairly easy read and frequently entertaining (and yes, as one should expect, humorous) in its anecdotes. It’s not heavy or scholarly. There is much more quotation than original material, and it’s rather like reading a compendium of religious (primarily Christian) jokes, with some commentary and spiritual advice and exercises thrown in.
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