Painfully Clear The Parables Of Jesus

Jesus’ stories should be understood as healings, not teachings. Conservatives, for whom the parables are allegorical, and liberals, who view them as creative works of art, make the mistake of treating the parable as a form that conceals even as it reveals. They fail to appreciate that Jesus intended to be painfully clear, since most of his stories were meant for people with sick attitudes and were designed to make them aware of their condition. If the parables, as they appear in the Gospels, seem mysterious, it is because first-century writers were ill equipped to report them adequately, not because they were intrinsically enigmatic. A compelling new methodology of interpretation is advanced, and applied with striking effect to twelve parables.