About this item
Highlights
- Over the centuries, some interpreters have attempted to explain what parables mean.
- About the Author: David B. Gowler is the Pierce Chair of Religion at Oxford College of Emory University and Senior Faculty Fellow, The Center for Ethics, Emory University.
- 320 Pages
- Religion + Beliefs, Christianity
Description
About the Book
From this we see how the use of Jesus' parables affects society and culture and how powerfully parables have challenged--and continue to challenge--people's hearts, minds, and imaginations.Book Synopsis
Over the centuries, some interpreters have attempted to explain what parables mean. Other interpreters have endeavored to articulate what parables do--how they "work" rhetorically or poetically. With the parables of Jesus, however, more is required, because Jesus' parables have always demanded a response from readers or hearers. Interpreters, therefore, should also seek to ascertain what parables want, because the parables of Jesus not only stake claims and demand responses; they also challenge their hearers to act. This challenge reverberates across the centuries, calling us continually back to the texts to discover anew what these distinctive and wonderful stories show us about what it means to be human and the ways in which Jesus urges us to follow God in word and deed.
The Parables after Jesus is the first book to explore in a comprehensive way the "afterlives" of the parable tradition--how people have interpreted, been influenced by, and applied Jesus' enigmatic and compelling parables in a multitude of ways, perspectives, eras, contexts, and media. Interpretation is never a solitary endeavor, for each interpreter stands on the shoulders of previous interpreters, continually in dialogue with other interpretations, past and present. Gowler's reception history discusses more than fifty imaginative receptions of Jesus' parables, selected from two millennia of parable interpretation--from those who have dominated discussions to often ignored or suppressed voices. From this we see how the use of Jesus' parables affects society and culture and how powerfully parables have challenged--and continue to challenge--people's hearts, minds, and imaginations.
Review Quotes
Gowler has once again contributed a valuable work to the growing field of reception history and biblical studies. It is especially important to note that he sees this work as an 'introduction, ' a 'starting point' and 'stimulus for further discussions, ' and as such it certainly accomplishes this task.
--Zechariah Eberhart "Religious Studies Review"With The Parables after Jesus, David Gowler has provided contemporary readers with resources necessary to respond to what the parables want, with an answer that 'involves both understanding and action.' For this gift of erudite scholarship that culminates in a challenging call to action, we are in David Gowler's debt once again.
--Mikeal C. Parsons "Review of Biblical Literature"About the Author
David B. Gowler is the Pierce Chair of Religion at Oxford College of Emory University and Senior Faculty Fellow, The Center for Ethics, Emory University. He is the author of several books, as well as dozens of articles, book chapters, and book reviews, and is the editor or coeditor of over thirty books. His books on the parables include What Are They Saying about the Parables? and, as co-editor, Howard Thurman: Sermons on the Parables.