The Parables after Jesus Their Imaginative Receptions across Two Millennia
Pages
320
Publisher
Baker Academic
Published
2/1/2017
ISBN-13
9780801049996
Jesus's enigmatic and compelling parables have fascinated their hearers since he first uttered them, and during the intervening centuries these parables have produced a multitude of interpretations. This accessibly written book explores the varying interpretations of Jesus's parables across two millennia to demonstrate how powerfully they continue to challenge people's hearts, minds, and imaginations.
The Parables after Jesus covers more than fifty imaginative receptions from different eras, perspectives, and media, including visual art, music, literature, science fiction novels, plays, poetry, sermons, politics, theologians, biblical scholars, and other modes of interpretation, including perspectives from other religious traditions. The book shows how the use of Jesus's parables affects society and culture and offers a richer appreciation for Jesus's most striking teachings. Readers will begin to understand how contemporary interpretations of the parables stand on the shoulders of centuries of conversations and that our interpretations are never independent of the readings and responses that have preceded us. The Parables after Jesus will serve as an excellent supplemental text for a variety of courses.
The Parables after Jesus covers more than fifty imaginative receptions from different eras, perspectives, and media, including visual art, music, literature, science fiction novels, plays, poetry, sermons, politics, theologians, biblical scholars, and other modes of interpretation, including perspectives from other religious traditions. The book shows how the use of Jesus's parables affects society and culture and offers a richer appreciation for Jesus's most striking teachings. Readers will begin to understand how contemporary interpretations of the parables stand on the shoulders of centuries of conversations and that our interpretations are never independent of the readings and responses that have preceded us. The Parables after Jesus will serve as an excellent supplemental text for a variety of courses.
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1. The Afterlives of Jesus's Parables in Antiquity (to ca. 550 CE)
- Irenaeus
- The Gospel of Philip
- Clement of Alexandria
- Tertullian
- Origen
- John Chrysostom
- Augustine
- Macrina the Younger
- Ephrem the Syrian
- The Good Shepherd in Early Christian Art
- Oil Lamp
- Roman Catacombs
- Dura-Europos House Church
- Illuminations from the Rossano Gospels
- Byzantine Mosaics, Christ Separating Sheep from Goats, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna, Italy)
- Romanos the Melodist
- 2. The Afterlives of Jesus's Parables in the Middle Ages (ca. 550-1500 CE)
- Gregory the Great
- Sahih al-Bukhari
- Wazo of Liège
- The Golden Gospels of Echternach
- The Laborers in the Vineyard
- The Wicked Tenants
- The Great Dinner
- The Rich Man and Lazarus
- Theophylact
- Hildegard of Bingen
- Chartres Cathedral
- Bonaventure
- Thomas Aquinas
- John Gower
- Antonia Pulci
- Albrecht Dürer
- 3. The Afterlives of Jesus's Parables in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
- Martin Luther
- Anna Jansz of Rotterdam
- John Calvin
- John Maldonatus
- William Shakespeare
- Domenico Fetti
- George Herbert
- Roger Williams
- Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
- John Bunyan
- 4. The Afterlives of Jesus's Parables in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
- William Blake
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Frederick Douglass
- Fanny Crosby
- Leo Tolstoy
- John Everett Millais
- Emily Dickinson
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
- Adolf Jülicher
- 5. The Afterlives of Jesus's Parables in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Thomas Hart Benton
- Parables and the Blues: Rev. Robert Wilkins
- Flannery O'Connor
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Godspell
- Latin American Receptions
- The Peasants of Solentiname
- Elsa Tamez
- David Flusser
- Octavia Butler
- Thich Nhat Hanh
- Conclusion: What Do Parables Want?
- Appendix: Descriptions of the Parables Cited in the Interpretations
- Indexes