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Catholic

2023-02-13T08:10:02-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Parables as Subversive Speech—the Conclusion—and a More Incarnational Jesus

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:10 am By Jack Hartjes

In Parables as Subversive Speech William Herzog takes us back to the time and place in which Jesus lived for a fresh reading of nine of Jesus’ parables. (See numbers 3-11 in the list below.) We find Jesus in the midst of the economic, political, and religious forces that oppressed Palestine’s poor people. In parables Jesus draws word pictures of the ways that oppression works and encourages creative thinking in response. Jesus’ parables, in this view, are not so much... Read more

Politics and Religion

2023-02-13T08:10:13-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Dishonest Steward uses the Weapons of the Weak

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:10 am By Jack Hartjes

“… and they all lived happily, for a while, after.” That’s how Jesus could have ended the Parable of the Dishonest Steward. A rich man gets a bad report – just a rumor, perhaps – about one of his estate managers and fires him. The employee makes a last-ditch effort to save himself from a life on the streets. He offers his soon-to-be-former clients some substantial debt relief. The master sees how happy his debtors now are and takes a... Read more

Politics and Religion

2023-02-13T08:10:39-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Unjust Judge Out-Shamed by Persistent Widow – a Parable

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:10 am By Jack Hartjes

Jesus told a parable in which a widow crosses the boundaries of social acceptability and obtains justice from an unjust judge. That is the story, but that is not where the usual interpretation of the Parable of the Unjust Judge ends up. This is the tenth in a series of posts on the parables of Jesus, following William Herzog’s interpretive model of Jesus as “pedagogue of the oppressed.” Herzog interprets the Parable of the Unjust Judge, or Persistent Widow, in... Read more

Politics and Religion

2023-02-13T08:10:51-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Friend at Midnight – Shameless, but in a Good Way

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:10 am By Jack Hartjes

“Translator, traitor.” The saying sounds better in Italian than in English, but it applies to the Parable of the Friend at Midnight equally well in either language. And so my two favorite newer Bible translations – NABR and NRSV – have to take a back seat to the old Confraternity edition. That’s if William Herzog in Chapter 11 of Parables as Subversive Speech is right about this parable. Jesus’ Parable of the Friend at Midnight gets its first interpretation by... Read more

Politics and Religion

Herzog

Uncategorized

2023-02-13T08:11:00-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Publican and Pharisee: A Parable of Two Public Sinners

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:11 am By Jack Hartjes

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican occurs only in the Gospel of Luke. Prayer is a main theme of Luke’s, and this parable seems to be all about two ways of praying. There’s the humble prayer of the publican and the proud prayer of the Pharisee. Scholars believe that the Pharisee’s was a decent prayer in that story. He tells the truth about himself and the publican, as he sees it. With a touch of pride, perhaps, but... Read more

Bible

Herzog

Parables

2023-02-13T08:11:14-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Horrifying – or Tragic – Parable of the Talents

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:11 am By Jack Hartjes

I always pitied the third servant in the Parable of the Talents, the one who got one talent from the master and buried it. Sure, he could have been more enterprising, like the other two servants. They got five and two talents and made five and two talents more. But he wasn’t a bad sort, just timid, not one who takes risks. He kept the money safe, didn’t lose a penny of it, and gave it all back when the... Read more

Politics and Religion

2023-02-13T08:11:27-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Unmerciful Servant Parable Trashes Messianic Hopes

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:11 am By Jack Hartjes

The crowd on Palm Sunday hailed Jesus as the new King David. Jesus twice (at least) laid to rest the idea that the Messiah would bring back the days of that famous king. Once it was in a provocative question: “David himself calls him [the Messiah] Lord; so how is he his son?” (Mark 12:37) Once it was by means of a parable, the subject of this post. Jesus disowns the popular conception of and hope for the Messiah. That,... Read more

Politics and Religion

2023-02-13T08:11:37-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Rich Man and Lazarus, or an Oppressor who Won’t be Taught

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:11 am By Jack Hartjes

In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus, the pedagogue of the oppressed, features a pedagogy of the oppressor. And this pedagogy fails: the rich man doesn’t learn. This post in a series on William Herzog’s Parables as Subversive Speech turns to his Chapter 7, “The Unbridgeable Chasm.” Previous posts in the series: William Herzog Reads Jesus’ Parables, Brings them Down to Earth Paulo Freire, the “Pedagogue of the Oppressed”: Is This a Good Fit for Jesus? Laborers... Read more

Politics and Religion

2023-02-13T08:11:49-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants and the Wickeder Landlord

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:11 am By Jack Hartjes

Sometimes in real life it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. It can be the same in a parable that Jesus tells. The Parable of the Wicked Tenants may be a story of the bad guys and the really bad guys – just like in real life. In a series of posts I’m thinking about Parables as Subversive Speech, following William Herzog’s book by that title. (See note below.) Previous posts in the series: William Herzog... Read more

Politics and Religion

2023-02-13T08:12:03-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Laborers in the Vineyard: A Reading that Doesn’t Blame the Victims

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 8:12 am By Jack Hartjes

Reading Parables as Subversive Speech, I’m letting William Herzog challenge my older reading of many of Jesus’ parables. Those down-to-earth stories might not be earthy metaphors for a far-off heaven, as often supposed. They could just be stories about day-to-day life on earth. The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard begins, “The kingdom of heaven is like….” But that may be the Gospel writer Matthew’s idea and not part of Jesus’ parable. Or, if it is, it might be... Read more

Politics and Religion

Herzog

Social Justice

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