Donald Capps is Professor of Pastoral Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of several books. He has dedicated this manifesto about the helpful and curative bonds between religion and humor to Don Quixote who has become his hero. In the introduction, the author spells out his view that religion is impoverished when it does not embrace its ties with humor and laughter.
In the opening chapter, Capps presents jokes relating to death anxiety and ponders their value as saving psychic resources. Next he shares some animal and bird jokes as part of his view of humor as a stimulus to identity creation. In the following three chapters, the author covers humor as expression of intimacy, humor as soul maintenance, and humor as the gentle art of reframing. Capps makes a convincing case that religion may be enriched by humor by focusing on five of humor's gifts.
