Friday, September 27 at BYU (EIZ Auditorium, B192 JFSB)
Morning Sessions:
9:00 am – Welcome and Introduction (Rex Nielson, Scott Miller)
9:15 am – Rick McBride: Laughing at the Human Condition: Humor in Sinitic Buddhism
9:45 am – Rex Nielson: On Laughter, Joy, and Spiritual Transcendence: Laughing with Clarice Lispector
10:15 am – Q&A
10:45 am – Break
11:00 am – Plenary: Simran Jeet Singh (on joy and humor in the Sikh tradition)
12:15 pm – Lunch
Afternoon Sessions:
1:30 pm – Jason Kerr: Faithfulness to the Joke: Theological Reflections on the Gospel of Mark
2:00 pm – Jared Ludlow: Why Use Others to Take Abraham’s Soul?: Is God a Comic Character in the Testament of Abraham?
2:30 pm – Q&A
2:45 pm – Break
3:00 pm – Plenary: Jeremy Dauber: Is Judaism Funny? A historical investigation
4:00 pm – Break
4:30 pm – Roundtable with Eric D. Snider, Lisa Valentine Clark, Ken and Katie Craig
Saturday, September 28 at TimpLodge
Morning Sessions
9:00 am – Welcome Back
9:15 am – Kerry Soper: Finding Christian Identity and Sociality through Comedy (A Sometimes Awkward Personal Journey)
9:45 am – Valerie Hegstrom: “Quiero seguirle el humor para entretenerme un rato”: Levity in Religious Autos by Spanish Nuns
10:15 am – Q&A
10:45 am – Break
11:00 am – Plenary: Anita Houk: From Homer to Homer: Divine Laughter from The Iliad to The Simpsons
12:15 pm – Lunch
Afternoon Sessions
1:30 pm – Chris Flood: Laughing in Church: Humor, Humanism, and Christianity in Renaissance France
2:00 pm – Will Carr and Corry Cropper: Translating Humor, Translating God: Beckett’s En attendant Godot in Franco’s Spain
3:00 pm – Q&A and Close
3:30 pm – Hike to Stewart Falls for those who are interested