Elisabeth German and Dr. Steve Walker, English
Main Text
For my project, I wrote a chapter for Dr. Walker’s book on humor and the Bible entitled, Man Thinks, God Laughs. The purpose of the book is to teach readers to see the text of the Bible through a helpful (albeit atypical) lens: that of humor. While reading the Bible with a purey straight-faced approach, we can often miss beautiful and inspiring moral lessons that simply were not visible without the reader’s awareness of the comedy contained therein.
Part of the reason why we as Bible readers miss the comedy contained within the Bible is that there is more to comedy than what we typically know to look for. Comedy has more attributes than puns, satire, slapstick, and goofy characters. When a reader becomes acquainted with the wider spectrum of the definition of comedy, he or she becomes more able to access beautiful moral lessons that just aren’t visible without the comedic lens. We receive more of the wealth that the Bible has to offer us.
For my chapter, I wrote on the Book of Ruth; a book which, at first glance, seems anything but humorous. Beautiful, yes. But hilarious? We wouldn’t think so. Now, the purpose of Man Thinks, God Laughs is not purely to unearth the slapstick, punny, or satirical elements of Bible literature, but also to analyze the scriptural text searching for attributes of comedy as a literary genre. Dr. Walker and I looked for the puns, too, but our research expanded beyond that as well.
J. William Whedbee identifies four interrelated perspectives on Biblical humor:
1) the shape of the comedic plot line,
2) characterization of basic types,
3) linguistic and stylistic strategies, and
4) functions and intentions (meaning whether the story works to subvert or to establish current social norms).
Fascinatingly, elements of each of these comedic perspectives can be found in the book of Ruth: this became the focus of my research and the substance of my chapter, particularly the first two components of Whedbee’s list. I formed these two components into the theses of the power of personality and the promise of deliverance in the comedic genre, but in the Book of Ruth more particularly.
My first objective was to analyze the three main characters—Naomi, Boaz, and Ruth—and to identify character types that they show signs of. Once identified, I worked to show the ways in which the personality traits (both positive and negative) played significant roles in working to bring about positive and transformative outcomes, even one that impacted the generations of the earth in that it created another link in the bloodline through which the Savior would come.
Next I approached Whedbee’s perspective of plotline, tying this to the promise of deliverance. The concept of plot line and its shape has to do with the turn of events that a character goes through. A tragic plot line for example follows the pattern of an inverted U, wherein the main character starts off the story being down and out, rises to a fleeting phase of good fortune, and then ends back down in tragedy, ruin, and loss when the story ends. Comedy is just the opposite. It follows a typical U-shaped pattern as the character begins the story in prosperity, descends into the depths of loss and misfortune, and then re-ascends into a new and better prosperity, having been changed, streamlined, remade, and wonderfully improved by the trials he or she has passed through.
This U-shaped plotline is masterfully put into practice in the Book of Ruth, and in my opinion it is also one of the Lord’s most effective teaching methods, both in scripture and in our individual lives. With the overall objective of Man Thinks, God Laughs being to pull a beautiful and significant moral lesson from the comedic traits of the text, the analysis of this plot line and the purposes it served in the lives of the individuals within the story was a fundamental aspect of my thesis, and the overarching message that I wished to convey to readers. Just as the final resolution within a comedy’s plot contains the promise of peace and well-being in the story’s outcome, so does the plan and ministry of God in our individual lives contain such marvelous promise. And the lessons, refining, blessings, attributes, and inheritances that we obtain as a result of our descent into tragedy elevate us to a higher and more developed state of spiritual being, and it is there that we obtain greater capacities for joy and further fulfillment of our lives’ individual purposes.
The instruction and insight that we gain while bearing in mind the instructional possibilities presented by humor, being informed and familiar with the rather wide spectrum of comedic attributes within literature, open a wide vista of learning to students of the Bible. It is a perspective worthy of consideration, and filled with promise and power, as we begin to see the patterns of the Lord’s instruction in our lives, and the ways that our individual personality traits (the good and the bad, the noble and the obnoxious) are all part of the construct that brings about a transformation in our lives. It transforms our hearts, our circumstances, and ultimately leads to the highest realms of our becoming.