This thesis explores the relationship between religion and humor by focusing on four common ways in which religious individuals and communities use humor: as a teaching tool to instruct adherents in the ideas, norms, or values of the tradition; as a sign of transcendence to indicate the presence of sacred or extraordinary qualities in divine beings or holy people; as a release valve to relieve pent-up tension through the regulated expression of otherwise prohibited ideas, images or behaviors; and as a weapon to both defend and attack one's own religious tradition and to negotiate the place of religious traditions in broader social contexts.