Laughing In The Face of Violence: Theological Implications of the Inter-relationships between Violence and Humour in the Book of Judges

I assume that there is a theological basis and meaning to each book of the He-brew Bible and I contend that the inter-relationships of the narrative devices humour and violence in the same story present theological messages and insights that have not, till now, been adequately examined in 21st century theological study. This thesis is an inter-disciplinary undertaking, involving a range of exemplars and scholarly insights. It does not fit neatly into either the traditional theological or the biblical studies categories. I draw on René Girard’s Scapegoat Mechanism, Bruno Bet-telheim’s insights on imagination and Stephen Leacock’s understanding of humour, among others, employing particular social and literary theories about märchen, vio-lence and humour, viewed from a contextual feminist perspective. I scrutinize three stories in the book of Judges and I propose that violence and humour, presented together, modify and alter any interpretation that may be suggested and impact on the theological meanings of the corpus as a whole. Their interactions verify, yet moderate, the interconnections between the theological intent of the text and its reception by the 21st century Canadian reader. While the violence may be unac-ceptable as a theological device in post-modern Western society, the humour modifies and amends any motifs that are presented, making them, and the anti-non-Israelite motif that is so clearly delineated, more palatable to the present-day reader.Doctor of Theology (ThD