The humor of Christ: A different methodological approach

Abstract

The Gospels never mention Jesus laughing. Therefore, the inference some make is that if it does not specifically say that he did, then he must not have. Other scholars have argued that it is easy to see humor in the writings about Christ if you look for it (e.g., Buckner, The joy of Jesus, The Canterbury Press, 1993; Trueblood, The humor of Christ, Harper & Row Publishers, 1964; Wirt, Jesus man of joy, Harvest House Publishers, 1999). The goal of the present study is to examine how Christians describe the humorous (or not) behavior of Jesus Christ using the Humorous Behavior Q-Sort Deck (Craik, Lampert, and Nelson, Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 9: 273–302, 1996). This is a new application of an established methodological approach which should aid our thinking on the subject of humor and Christ. Thirty subjects sorted the 100 statements while reflecting on Jesus. The results are discussed within the humorous style framework of Craik and Ware (Humor and personality in everyday life, Mouton de Gruyter. 1998) and the larger research context.