Below are selected writings, including my award-winning nationally syndicated column.
joy Laughter Posted on Aug 21, 2026 by Susan Sparks
I’m excited to share that I was recently published in Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, a peer-reviewed journal of biblical scholarship and theology published since 1947 by Union Presbyterian Seminary.” The abstract is below. For the full article, please CLICK HERE!
Abstract
This essay challenges Reinhold Niebuhr’s claim that laughter belongs only in the “outer courts” of faith and
must fall silent in the Holy of Holies. Through historical, theological, and cultural analysis—as well as lived
pastoral experience and an unapologetic dash of humor—this essay demonstrates that humor is not merely
permissible within the sacred but essential to it. Laughter offers perspective, strengthens community, disarms
power, loosens our grip on rigid certainties, and opens a pathway to forgiveness. Most important, humor
functions as a spiritual life-support system in moments of profound suffering, where despair threatens to
eclipse faith. In such spaces—which are themselves the true Holy of Holies—laughter becomes a courageous
act of hope. Ultimately, this essay contends that humor is not a threat to holiness but one of its deepest
expressions.
