Monday, December 5, 2011

The Ineffable One


The little dude with the pointy horns on his head is obviously going around yelling out shorthand slang for that infamous word little Ralphie said in A Christmas Story. And then out of no where Jesus shows up and makes a theologically sound and unrelated statement. And yes, it is a pun and I just find it hilarious, even without the last panel. Dictionary.com defines ineffable as "incapable of being expressed or described in words; inexpressible."

 
In theology and religion ineffable is used to describe God or the ways of God. His ways can often be mysterious and simply beyond our understanding. Which in itself I also find rather humorous, since theology is an attempt to understand the ineffable ways of God.

And I absolutely adore this pun. And there are several points in the New Testament where a person could easily stop and point out that what they've just said is a pun. Of course, we miss out on most of those puns in our English translations. That's one reason why you should read the New Testament in the original Greek: it's a lot more funny!

I learned about Tatsuya Ishida's webcomic Sinfest from a post by Jeff Jackson on his Comics Are My Religion site. There he picked out some of his choice Sinfest comics that dealt with theology and religion. The selections on his post are quite amusing, with this one clearly being my favorite. However, once I went to the actual Sinfest site and started browsing through, I found such themed comics to be few and sparse. So, I wouldn't say I exactly recommend Sinfest, but I certainly recommend Jackson's post about the webcomic.

Also, a good sense of humor about your own religion and beliefs will definitely help. And if you don't have that, I can't imagine you're reading Wednesday Theology anyway...

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