About the Contributor(s): Charles D. Barrett is Peter B. Hendrix Professor emeritus of Religion at Wofford College and author of Understanding the Christian Faith (1980), God Under Our Skin: A Search for the Theological Jesus (2006), and Funny Things Can Happen on Your Way through the Bible 1: Scriptural Oddities and Odd Thoughts about Them (Wipf and Stock, 2010).

Proceeding from Voltaire's conclusion that "God is a comedian playing to an audience that's afraid to laugh," this book seeks to uncover some of the many instances in which biblical texts offer readers grace and insight through the divine gifts of humor, wit, and laughter. Readers are invited to take a strikingly unusual, if not unique, approach to the texts, imagining not only the voice inflections but also the body language of their narrators to capture the humorous nuances and ripples of laughter that likely attended the first telling of many biblical stories.