On Fri, 26 Jul 1996 16:35, Alasdar Mackintosh wrote:
[...]
> I hope we're not overdoing this topic, but:
>
> As well as humour and joy, we also have two kinds of humour. One of
> them is the unpleasant kind, which involves laughing at someone else's
> misfortune, and carries with it the implication of superiority. I
> laugh at him becasue I'm better than him.
>
> This sounds dangerously like pride, which as we all know is
> the worst of the seven deadlies. Oops.
>
Medieval theology sometimes thought otherwise, or almost. See Bernard, _In
psalmum XC "Qui habitat"_, sermo VIII, 10, PL 138, 214-215, who justifies
the laughing of the just at the misfortune of the unjust, arguing that such
misfortune offers the legitimate pleasure of seeing the beauty of divine
justice at work (I cite from an excerpt, so don't trust it to the letter):
<<Ego quoque in interitu vestro ridebo et subsannabo, cum vobis
quod timebatis advenerit, cum irruerit repentina calamitas, et
interitus quasi tempestas ingruerit>> (Prv 1,26-27). Quid ergo
insipientiam [recte: insipientium] interitu Sapientae credimus
placiturum, nisi justissimam suam dispositionem, et irreprehensibilem
ordinem rerum? Sane quod Sapientiae tunc placebit, sapientibus quoque
placeat necesse est universis. Non igigur tibi durum videatur fore
quod dicitur, <<Oculis tuis considerabis [et retributionem peccatorum
videbis]>> (Ps 90,8), quando et ridebis in eorum interitu: non quod
velut quadam immanitate crudelitas in ipsa tibi ultione complaceat;
sed quod modus ipse pulcherrimus divinae ordinationis ultra quam credi
possit, justitiae relatorem et amatorem aequitatis oblectet.
Maybe somebody else wants to comment how this matches with the kind of
humour exhibited by Bernard himself in the case of "insipientes" like Abaelard.
Otfried Lieberknecht
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