The Parables After Jesus : Their Imaginative Receptions Across Two Millennia

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.