This book is a Not For Me title. I mark titles with competitive qualitative content NFM when I find the content personally disinteresting or the writing style to be dissonant to my preferences.

Marked overall as 3 because, while I randomize checks for qualitative markers I do not read anywhere near enough of the book to give either more or less than that rating and a blank rating is not an option.

If you’re religious, especially a Christian: can you take a joke?

Even better, are you willing to see the important critique which can often only be made through humor?

In God Mocks: A History of Religious Satire from the Hebrew Prophets to Stephen Colbert, Terry Lindvall explores the history of satire in the Classical world and in Christendom.

The work is thorough: the ways the Hebrew prophets and many Classical commentators used satire to make often biting social and political commentary becomes a template which would be imitated throughout the medieval, early modern, and modern periods in Europe and America.

The author certainly explores the popular and common examples: Elijah; Isaiah; Ezekiel; Juvenal; Chaucer; Pope; Swift; Muggeridge; Chesterton; Twain; Mencken; Monty Python; Colbert; and so forth. The author also considers many examples throughout Christendom which are not nearly as commonly remembered or popularized but whose commentary was prescient.

Some of the satire is ribald, but then again a lot of the conduct of Christians and clergy proved quite ribald throughout time. But it need not all be sexually titillating; there was plenty of opportunity to make satire of religious predilections, hypocrisies, fundamentalisms, and whatnot. And many times the only way to be able to really make such points without being driven out of town was through satire and humor.

The book dates from 2015, which influences the way the author speaks of Stephen Colbert; I’d be interested in his take now that he no longer has to maintain a character as he did on The Colbert Report, but Colbert’s takes are well informed by his faith, and he does remain one of the most significant purveyors of religious satire today.

The author proves not a little loquacious. I recognize the hypocrisy in pointing something like that out, but the level of detail and what seems to be the never ending prose does absolutely take away from the experience of the book and distracts from the quality of the subject matter. The conclusion especially would have benefited from significant cutting to get to the main point and not introduce a bunch more examples.

Nevertheless, for those who are willing to hear it, religious satire can prove an important part of critiquing those with power and standing and to expose what often proves ridiculous and hypocritical, and this work proves to be a significant contribution to understanding its history and development in Christendom.

I've always enjoyed satire, and especially nowadays I find myself watching a lot of political satire, trying to somehow make sense of this world. And in the middle of watching The Daily Show I realised that God Mocks was still patiently waiting on my Kindle bookshelf for me. So naturally I rushed to my Kindle and started reading Lindvall's fascinating history of religious satire, which spans from the Old Testament to Stephen Colbert, another favourite of mine. Thanks to NYU Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have always considered myself Christian, partially because I grew up within Christianity but also because much of it rings true with me. But for me religion and faith are nothing without continuous questioning and self-examination, and I think satire is one of the key ways to do so. As such, it is not surprising that the Bible itself also engages in satire, something that I only truly became aware of while reading God Mocks. The Old Testament is full of prophets who low-key satirise their kings, ridiculing them to make them see their faults and flaws. God, according to Lindvall, is king at this kind of satire, hence the title of his book. And after reading God Mocks I could see exactly what he meant.

What I truly enjoyed was how Lindvall emphasises that the key aspect of satire is that the satirist cares. It is why I believe political satire has been thriving lately, on TV, in printing and on social media. People are starting to care more and more about politics again, recognising their role in it, satirising the political system to effect a change. Whether it's the British bemoaning Brexit, aware that their future is irrevocably tied to it, or Americans trumping Trump on Twitter, knowing his political ignorance affects their lives deeply, all of those who satirise care. Occasionally Lindvall himself seems to lose track of this, however, discussing the satire of non-believers. I see both the benefits and negatives of this, but Lindvall does try to find a balance between the two.

Lindvall is clearly interested in his own topic, which sounds like a given but is actually quite rare. I have read a lot of text books that not only bored me to death but also seemed to have bored the authors to distraction. So reading God Mocks was interesting and often entertaining. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to write about humour and not become aware of just how unfunny writing about humour really is. That is why explaining a joke makes everyone feel sad, it ruins the magic and leaves everyone a little bit disillusioned. However, Limdvall does his best and his wit often saves God Mocks from potentially becoming too dry. I especially enjoyed his last chapter on "modern day" religious satire, starting with Monty Python's Life of Brian, touching on The Onion and praising Colbert. Lindvall clearly researched his book well and writes with an ease that makes his subject seem far from drear. Nonetheless, this is probably not a book for everyone. Coming up to almost 400 pages, a prior interest in both religion and satire is pretty much a must.

Well-researched and cleverly written, God Mocks is a great look at religious satire, both old and new. Lindvall manages to make the topic consistently interesting, moving easily through history from one key period to another, tracing satire and religion side by side.