In 1969, I was teaching at two seminaries inthe Chicago area. One of my courses wason the parables by Jesus and the other wason the resurrection stories about Jesus. I hadobserved that the parabolic stories by Jesusseemed remarkably similar to the resurrectionstories about Jesus. Were the latter intended asparables just as much as the former? Had webeen reading parable, presuming history, andmisunderstanding both?from The Power of Parable So begins the quest of renowned Jesus scho...
In 1969, I was teaching at two seminaries inthe Chicago area. One of my courses wason the parables by Jesus and the other wason the resurrection stories about Jesus. I hadobserved that the parabolic stories by Jesusseemed remarkably similar to the resurrectionstories about Jesus. Were the latter intended asparables just as much as the former? Had webeen reading parable, presuming history, andmisunderstanding both?from The Power of Parable So begins the quest of renowned Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan as he unlocks the truemeanings and purposes of parable in the Bible sothat modern Christians can respond genuinely to Jesus’s call to fully participate in the kingdom of God. In The Power of Parable, Crossan examines Jesus’s parables and identifies what he calls the"challenge parable" as Jesus’s chosen teaching toolfor gently urging his followers to probe, question, and debate the ideological absolutes of religiousfaith and the presuppositions of social, political, and economic traditions.Moving from parables by Jesus to parables about Jesus, Crossan then presents the four gospels as"megaparables." By revealing how the gospels arenot reflections of the actual biography of Jesus butrather (mis)interpretations by the gospel writersthemselves, Crossan reaffirms the power of parablesto challenge and enable us to co-create with God a world of justice, love, and peace.
