The History of Easter Laughter: Johannes Oecolampadius De risu paschali from 1518 with an Introduction, Annotated Translation, and an Account of the Cultural, Ecclesiastical, and Theological Transf...

May you laugh in church? The church fathers said no, but the question resurfaced thanks to a German custom of making the congregation laugh on Easter morning. In 1518 Oecolampadius wrote a book in which Easter Laughter is described for the first time. Until now his Latin text has never been translated. This study provides a historical account of Easter Laughter in the Early Modern period, it traces the controversy it sparked between Catholics and Protestants in the following centuries, and it attempts to offer some explanations for why a provincial custom has sparked global interest since the 1950s.

The author discusses the role of laughter in church and society demonstrating how the general assessment of laughter has changed radically in an astonishingly short time. From an almost unbroken tradition of suspicion and prohibition, laughter now enjoys high esteem. This transformation is examined with a particular focus, as the book ventures to ask how it can be a blessing that Jesus did not laugh.