The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus

With "The Power of Parable" Dr. Crossan has once again plotted a well designed safari through the dense thicket of New Testament parables and has emerged with a large treasure chest of luminous gems and a number of priceless stones cut from a the mind of a peerless searcher after the surprising gifts hidden deep in the jungle we call scripture.He begins with a daunting experience he had early in his scholarly life when he recalls a singularly disturbing and unconvincing dramatization of the Passion of Jesus. He wondered then if elements of the story were more parable than historical account. He gained a powerful insight. Perhaps the scriptures contained not only parables by Jesus, like the Good Samaritan, but also parables about Jesus, like the "lethal crowd in the Passion play."As readers, we know by this time that the safari will carve its way into new territory and lead to some extraordinary finds. Crossan whets our appetites by comparing an obvious parable, the Good Samaritan, with apparent history, the post-resurrection encounter of two disciples with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Could the second story be as much a parable as the first? If so, what is the parable revealing to us?The scholar goes on to distinguish and illustrate three types of parables, using non-biblical, historical, and Gospel examples, everything from Job to Caesar's Gallic Wars to Puccini's Turandot to the 2011 movie, The King's Speech. We learn that parable = metaphoricity + narrativity. A quibble with Crossan is this occasional foray into preciousness with neologisms like "metaphoricity," when he could have written simply "metaphor," but let us go on.Riddle parables are stories wherein each important element is a cipher for something else. In the parable of the Sower, the sown seed is the preached Word of God. The different places where seed lands represent different situations in which the Word is received. It is a riddle which needs a key to solve, a key Jesus gives to his close followers. As with Batman's nemesis, The Riddler, failure to solve the riddle results in great harm. A lot is riding on solving a riddle parable, as a cursory reading of Mark's Gospel reveals.Example parables, like the surface meaning of the Good Samaritan, shows us how we are supposed to live. A challenge parable is a parable which, through the characters and the story, "reverses expectations and judgments, the presuppositions and prejudices of the society that hears the parable." Jesus is issuing this challenge in the Good Samaritan: Do you really think the people most likely to do the right thing are priests and Pharisees? Are Samaritans the least likely to do right? Really?Crossan spends the rest of his safari uncovering challenge parables throughout the Gospels. In fact, he posits that each Gospel as a whole is a parable, representing a point the evangelist wants to emphasize about the meaning of Jesus for the evangelist's time and place. We discover that Mark's whole Gospel is a challenge parable, calling into question that God's kingdom is coming by posing the possibility that the kingdom is already here; calling into question that the kingdom will be imposed by a divine avenger from the skies by suggesting that the kingdom is established collaboratively with God and us.And finally, the greatest challenge of all, to the Roman Empire, and earthly empires for all time: this kingdom will be established without violence but through pervasive love."Challenge parables foster not periodic doubting but permanent questioning." Crossan believes, and after journeying with him on his challenging safari, I am just about convinced, that Jesus was a storyteller, a teller of parables, and the parable he found most suitable to his startling message, his own Good News, was the challenge parable.If the jewels brought back from our safari are genuine, our approach to the Four Gospels is one of permanent questioning. What is the world's way of creating a kingdom? What is Jesus' way? What is the world's reckoning of truth and justice? What is truth to Jesus? What is world's picture of the good life? What is life in Jesus' realm?I imagine he was a great storyteller. Like Crossan, I picture him weaving his parables to rapt, involved, participating listeners over a matter of hours and not minutes. No one parable was ever spun out in precisely the same way twice, yet every one of them was told repeatedly in town after town.Just back from the safari with John Dominic Crossan, head still spinning a little, I experience a fervent desire to have been there, among the townsfolk, as Jesus takes a seat upon a rock, as I sit on the ground in front of him. A guy behind me calls out, "But who is my neighbor, Rabbi?" Jesus points out toward the path I've just traveled. He raises his voice. "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers."We settle back knowing we will work together, knowing we will come to a fresh, fascinating understanding of what constitutes a neighbor.Knowing we will face the challenge of our lives.

If you're looking for a book that will help you better understand Jesus's Gospel parables, this is not that book.Instead, this is literary criticism of the parables. That is, if you were to sign up for a college course on the biblical parables and it was offered in the English department—not the religious studies department—this would be the right kind of textbook.And it does read like a textbook. It is dense and dry. And at times, it's a real slog. Written by former Roman Catholic priest and New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan, this book is almost as convoluted as the parables themselves.Crossan identifies two types of parables in the New Testament:1. Parables BY Jesus that are fictional events about fictional characters, such as the parable of the Good Samaritan.2. Parables ABOUT Jesus, such as the resurrected Jesus joining the couple on the road to Emmaus. (For some, these are fightin' words. Crossan purports that all the Resurrection stories are parables.)He further classifies these two types of parables as being riddles, examples, challenges, or attacks.But Crossan doesn't stop with the New Testament. He also discusses book-length parables in the Old Testament and how they influenced Jesus's parables, specifically Ruth, Jonah, and Job.This is not a book for someone who is having a crisis of faith. Crossan purports that the four gospels are essentially book-length "megaparables" about Jesus; in other words, the gospels are fictional stories about real people. He does unequivocally assert that Jesus Christ was a real, historical figure who lived and breathed and was crucified. He also agrees that the four gospels provide a significant sequence of his life, but that much of this is "trailing clouds of fiction," that is, parables by Jesus and about Jesus.My biggest complaint: Crossan spends an inordinate amount of the book's total word count explaining in great detail what he will soon be explaining, and after he has finally explained whatever it is, he then again summarizes what he just said. It's annoying because it's so excessive. Rather than being something helpful, it's as if he doesn't trust readers to pay attention—so he has to warn us what is coming and then say it all over again at the end. He does it at the beginning and end of each chapter as well as sprinkled throughout each chapter.

I bought this book after seeing John Dominic Crossan in the television documentary, Saint Paul, with David Suchet. He was friendly and compelling and I needed to know more about his 'teaching'. I found this book on Amazon, and now within ten days of viewing the programme I am writing my very first book review - I simply cannot stress strongly enough how accessible Crossan is. He speaks our language, he gently and reassuringly brings the reader to a strong, safe refuge. I wish I had encountered him before now. Life is often unnecessarily problematic, but with a life guide to hand like Crossan, it all really seems not quite so difficult or so serious. Reading The Power of Parables is truly compelling and is written as if your very best friend or favourite elderly relative is eager to impart a message which at once instructs and also heals.Thank you, John Dominic Crossan, for being such an inspiration, thank you for making me see the world in a much more positive light, and thank you for making me say Thank You about a dozen times a day since seeing your documentary.I lost my faith around the age of about sixteen, now forty years later it has re-emerged, just as strong and as promising as it ever was, and it is totally down to Crossan's guidance and approachable personality. I cannot wait to read his other writings and have already ordered them.

Good product good service.

This is an approach to understanding the gospels (not just the parables) that I find most persuasive and convincing. It certainly makes incorporation of Jesus' life and teachings into a contemporary theology that fully endorses a modern cosmology far more satisfactory.

Great

I found it original, fascinating and illuminating. For example, when Jesus was telling a parable, it could be a two-hour affair with interruptions and debate. Crosson points out the extent of the offense in the parables, such as the nameless rich and pious and the named tax collector. Who knew that the slave who received five talents was being given the equivalent $2,000,000? His audience would be absolutely amazed at the metaphorical juxtapositions. Then when the gospel writers retold the parables, the each would surround the telling with their own specific context. He also deconstructs the stories of Job, Jonah and Ruth as exemplars of faith and obedience, but decidedly not Jewish. How could a xenophobic culture celebrate profound cultural ambiguity? Amazing. As well, he documents the tragic origins of European anti-semitism. It is well worth reading.