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I tell a joke, and you get it. I include a veiled allusion to, say, Faust in a casual conversation; you catch it; and we exchange a mental wink.
Humor provides a pathway into the hermeneutics of texts and communication. It also seems to provide a pathway into the sociology of communication. When the hearer/reader "gets it," he establishes a sometimes thrilling bond with the author/speaker.
God speaks and writes, and the more we "get" the inside jokes, the more inside we get. Having the mind of Christ is like sharing a joke that outsiders never understand. The Spirit who gives the mind of Christ is, after all, the Spirit of joy, the Mirth-Master, who makes fisherman preachers sound like drunks. The church is not merely an "interpretive" or "hermeneutical" community; it's a communion in humor.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 02:26 PM
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