Between Heaven and Mirth
Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
“Between Heaven and Mirth will make any reader smile. . . . Father Martin reminds us that happiness is the good God’s own goal for us.” —Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York
From one of America’s most beloved spiritual leaders and the New York Times bestselling author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and Jesus: A Pilgrimage Father James Martin, SJ, comes a revolutionary guide to Christian living that looks at how you can change your life and save your spirit through joy, humor, and laughter.
Martin shares how you can strike a healthy balance between spirituality and daily life and live as a joyful believer. In Between Heaven and Mirth, he uses scriptural passages, the lives of the saints, the spiritual teachings of other traditions, and his own personal reflections to show us why joy is the inevitable result of faith, because a healthy spirituality, a healthy sense of humor, and a dedication to spiritual growth go hand-in-hand with God's great plan for humankind.
How can we find the humor and happiness at the heart of the spiritual life?
Christian Humor: Why holy people are joyful people, with hilarious and touching stories from the lives of the saints, the wisdom of Scripture, and the author’s own experience as a Jesuit priest.Finding Joy: Practical, heartfelt advice on how to strike a healthy balance between modern daily life and spirituality, showing that joy is the inevitable result of a deep faith.Spiritual Wisdom: A refreshing look at the spiritual teachings of Christian and other traditions that prove a healthy sense of humor goes hand-in-hand with God’s great plan.A Joyful Believer: An invitation to change your life and save your spirit not through seriousness and gloom, but through the revolutionary power of laughter.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"So a humor book and a serious theology book meet up in a bar..." Martin, a Jesuit who is something of a regular on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, makes a strong case for the necessity of humor in the spiritual life, offering what he calls "a serious argument for joy." Weaving funny anecdotes and jokes with biblical and historical research and interviews with scholars, Martin does much to rescue the Christian tradition from joylessness. In his telling, church history is filled with levity if you only know where to look his portrayal of St. Teresa of Avila shows her to have been downright hilarious, and Jesus himself drew upon humor in ways we don't always appreciate when we read the Gospels today. Rather than laughter's trivializing faith, Martin sees humor as a faithful response to God, a default stance that invites other people into God's family. Winsome and comical but also provocative and thoughtful, Martin's book is a breath of fresh air for those who would take religion and themselves too seriously.
