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Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus
Here in one volume is Robert Farrar Capon's widely praised trilogy on Jesus' parables ― The Parables of the Kingdom, The Parables of Grace, and The Parables of Judgment. These studies offer a fresh, adventurous look at all of Jesus' parables, treated according to their major themes. With the same authorial flair and daring insight that have earned him a wide readership, Capon admirably bridges the gap between the biblical world and our own, making clear both the original meaning of the parables and their continuing relevance today.
531 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2002
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About the author
Robert Farrar Capon
42 books146 followersRobert Farrar Capon was a lifelong New Yorker and served for almost 30 years as a parish priest in the Episcopal Church. His first book, Bed and Board, was published in 1965 and by 1977 left full-time ministry to devote more time to writing books, though he continued to serve the church in various capacities such as assisting priest and Canon Theologian. He has written twenty books on theology, cooking and family life.
His lifelong interest in food intersected with his writing and led to his becoming food columnist for Newsday and The New York Times and also teaching cooking classes.
His lifelong interest in food intersected with his writing and led to his becoming food columnist for Newsday and The New York Times and also teaching cooking classes.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
June 2, 2015
In the past few years, I have lost interest in reading more Christian theology than I already have. The modern, popular Christian theology books were always either too moralistic or too simpering for my taste. So I have stayed away. But I am now pleased to announce that I have found the swaggering antidote to stuffy, badly written theology for laypeople: Robert Farrar Capon. My church’s clergy are constantly raving about and quoting Capon (namely for his perpetual message of the enduring grace of God), and at a recent conference, I decided it was time to give him a whirl, and I bought this large, dense book, in which Capon unpacks the parables of Jesus.
On the purely stylistic level, Capon writes with immense intelligence, literary skill, and pitch-perfect humor, setting him light years ahead of the popular Christian authors I’ve read. Here, there is no pandering, no ideological oversimplification, no fussy stories meant to force tears. Capon tells it straight but always with a liberal dose of wit. He has this jokey, old-fashioned tone, making him at times sound like your smart-but-prone-to-punning great uncle (using adjectives like “rockem-sockem,” for instance, while talking about the judgment of the Almighty; also very fond of the form "Yes, Virginia," when answering a eschatological question).
Regarding his theology, I warmed to it immediately. It is a life-giving breath of air to me, to read and to know that there are (or, were; Capon died in 2013) Christians out there, like Capon, who are simultaneously full of faith and empty of bullshit. Grace is the only thing that really matters, in Capon’s conception of the Gospel. For me, this perspective of grace, this radical, one-way love, is the only thing that has kept me a Christian.
In Capon’s conception, the mystery is at the heart of the Kingdom of God, and it is this never-ending mystery that Jesus alludes to, again and again, in his parables. Grace is at the heart of the Christian movement and yet we have failed to grasp it for centuries. Capon divides and conquers the parables in three books (stories about kingdom, grace, and judgment), which are here joined in one large volume.
To a skeptical, literate, doubt-filled Christian, the pleasures of reading Capon are vast. This book brightened my own weak conception of my faith and what matters about it in the end.
On the purely stylistic level, Capon writes with immense intelligence, literary skill, and pitch-perfect humor, setting him light years ahead of the popular Christian authors I’ve read. Here, there is no pandering, no ideological oversimplification, no fussy stories meant to force tears. Capon tells it straight but always with a liberal dose of wit. He has this jokey, old-fashioned tone, making him at times sound like your smart-but-prone-to-punning great uncle (using adjectives like “rockem-sockem,” for instance, while talking about the judgment of the Almighty; also very fond of the form "Yes, Virginia," when answering a eschatological question).
Regarding his theology, I warmed to it immediately. It is a life-giving breath of air to me, to read and to know that there are (or, were; Capon died in 2013) Christians out there, like Capon, who are simultaneously full of faith and empty of bullshit. Grace is the only thing that really matters, in Capon’s conception of the Gospel. For me, this perspective of grace, this radical, one-way love, is the only thing that has kept me a Christian.
In Capon’s conception, the mystery is at the heart of the Kingdom of God, and it is this never-ending mystery that Jesus alludes to, again and again, in his parables. Grace is at the heart of the Christian movement and yet we have failed to grasp it for centuries. Capon divides and conquers the parables in three books (stories about kingdom, grace, and judgment), which are here joined in one large volume.
To a skeptical, literate, doubt-filled Christian, the pleasures of reading Capon are vast. This book brightened my own weak conception of my faith and what matters about it in the end.
September 14, 2009
Robert Farrar Capon is a cheery old semi-Marcionite, and an unvarnished antinomian. Various times in this book, you find yourself wishing that one of the apostles, preferably Paul, would show up and box his ears for him. He says things in here that are as atrocious as it gets. That said, at the same time, on the self-deceptions of the self-righteous, and on his descriptive abilities in describing the graciousness of grace, there is no one better. Those who want to be preachers of real grace should read it through for some of his staggering illustrations. Ignore his overall arguments though.
August 16, 2019
This book contains three books within it The first one, The Parables of the Kingdom, a study of the parables in Matthew 13, is worth five stars. The other two are also great, but after a while got tedious. Capon tends to tell the parables in his own words which is less interesting each time he does it. It is still good, when I study the parables I will return to this book, but its just long and drawn out.
I also think Capon's entire work rests on a false dichotomy. His greatest skill is talking about grace and he emphasizes over and over that the message of Jesus is to save sinners AND WE ARE ALL SINNERS. Even the parables of judgment are turned on their head, for Capon's point is judgment only comes via grace. Everyone, every single person, is alike a broken mess and is "in". The only way to be "out" is to exclude yourself by choosing to go back to a sort of score-keeping. If you try to earn your salvation, then you're going to be out of the party because you are trying to do something you literally cannot do.
The false dichotomy is that it seems any sort of effort or growth or anything else is, for Capon, a way of trying to earn your salvation. It is jarring to some degree, because I grew up in a conservative evangelical church whose primary goal was getting people to heaven. They were at times kind of legalistic and thus works like Capon's are helpful. I find so much beauty and joy in the grace that Capon talks about and I think so much of the church needs to hear it. But in the end, he's still only talking about going to heaven when you die. Thus, while this work is helpful to those of us who grew up thinking we were better than others due to our faith, it is also jarring because Capon is also only concerned with your final destiny and not life now.
It seems to me that you can believe the sort of grace Capon talks about and still think growing and becoming a better person is possible. Grace can be transformative. Yes, I want to say to Capon, you cannot save the world or totally heal yourself. But you can be better than you were yesterday or ten years ago. For Capon, grace seems to just get you in the door. What about the rest of your life? Are we doomed to just fail continually...
Yes, Capon seems to say, we are.
Here's the thing that goes along with it: Capon's ideas here cannot work in the real world. At one point he has an illustration of a pastor who cheats on his wife, divorces her, marries the other woman and asks the preach...to which the church board says no. Capon's implication here is that the church board is wrong. Because, after all, we are all sinners! Who are we to judge? Capon's treatment of the Publican and the Pharisee is great because he notes we assume the Publican, in his confession, comes back next week a better person. Do we offer grace when he returns, week after week as a failure. Who are we to judge the Publican or the cheating husband?
But this is the false dichotomy. We can't judge them, of course! We're all dead sinners brought to life in the resurrection. We're no better.
Yet that doesn't mean we let the dude keep preaching.
Too judgmental of me? I don't think, in the end, Capon would (or should) buy what he's selling.
Imagine a pedophile comes to Capon's church, begging forgiveness. Capon says, "yes, we're all dead sinners and grace invites us to the party." Great. I agree, however uncomfortable it is. But would Capon really put that pedophile in a Sunday school class? REALLY? And is it judgmental to say that pedophile can't teach Sunday school? REALLY?
Again, the false dichotomy, in starker terms now, is that we can only choose between:
1. Grace - let people do whatever they want. Don't stop cheating pastors from preaching or pedophiles from teaching Sunday school.
2. Judgmentalism - What, you think you can save yourself?
There's some space in there. No, I don't think I can save myself. No, I don't think we can fix the world. Yes, there's grace for even the pedophile. But I'm not letting him run the children's ministry.
I was listening to a podcast interviewing Will Willimon, an old Methodist preacher. He spoke of "transformative grace", the idea grace can change people. That reminds me of one of the first Christian books i remember reading, over 2 decades ago: Just Like Jesus by Max Lucado. The tagline was Jesus loves you just the way you are, but refuses to keep you that way. We see it in sanctification, in the spiritual disciplines. Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline is not how to practice earning God's love but how to put yourself in a place to be changed.
I think Capon serves us well in reminding us of the scandal of grace (though I suppose I think Philip Yancey does it better in What's So Amazing About Grace). Maybe he was being intentionally subversive. But after a while the tediousness, along with the false dichotomy, just got to me.
Capon would say I'm trying to earn my salvation and fix the world on my own.
I'd say no, I know I can't do either of those things and I don't think I'm better than anyone. I'm also not going to let a pedophile near my kids, a drunk drive me home or tell a woman abused by her husband to just take it and stop being so judgmental. I mean, honestly, that seems to be what Capon would say to an abused wife. "Who are you to judge? You're no better." At that point, when grace is just "don't judge" then people just may get hurt.
We need a grace as beautiful and subversive as Capon describes. But we also need a grace that transforms people. I don't see much transformation in this book.
I also think Capon's entire work rests on a false dichotomy. His greatest skill is talking about grace and he emphasizes over and over that the message of Jesus is to save sinners AND WE ARE ALL SINNERS. Even the parables of judgment are turned on their head, for Capon's point is judgment only comes via grace. Everyone, every single person, is alike a broken mess and is "in". The only way to be "out" is to exclude yourself by choosing to go back to a sort of score-keeping. If you try to earn your salvation, then you're going to be out of the party because you are trying to do something you literally cannot do.
The false dichotomy is that it seems any sort of effort or growth or anything else is, for Capon, a way of trying to earn your salvation. It is jarring to some degree, because I grew up in a conservative evangelical church whose primary goal was getting people to heaven. They were at times kind of legalistic and thus works like Capon's are helpful. I find so much beauty and joy in the grace that Capon talks about and I think so much of the church needs to hear it. But in the end, he's still only talking about going to heaven when you die. Thus, while this work is helpful to those of us who grew up thinking we were better than others due to our faith, it is also jarring because Capon is also only concerned with your final destiny and not life now.
It seems to me that you can believe the sort of grace Capon talks about and still think growing and becoming a better person is possible. Grace can be transformative. Yes, I want to say to Capon, you cannot save the world or totally heal yourself. But you can be better than you were yesterday or ten years ago. For Capon, grace seems to just get you in the door. What about the rest of your life? Are we doomed to just fail continually...
Yes, Capon seems to say, we are.
Here's the thing that goes along with it: Capon's ideas here cannot work in the real world. At one point he has an illustration of a pastor who cheats on his wife, divorces her, marries the other woman and asks the preach...to which the church board says no. Capon's implication here is that the church board is wrong. Because, after all, we are all sinners! Who are we to judge? Capon's treatment of the Publican and the Pharisee is great because he notes we assume the Publican, in his confession, comes back next week a better person. Do we offer grace when he returns, week after week as a failure. Who are we to judge the Publican or the cheating husband?
But this is the false dichotomy. We can't judge them, of course! We're all dead sinners brought to life in the resurrection. We're no better.
Yet that doesn't mean we let the dude keep preaching.
Too judgmental of me? I don't think, in the end, Capon would (or should) buy what he's selling.
Imagine a pedophile comes to Capon's church, begging forgiveness. Capon says, "yes, we're all dead sinners and grace invites us to the party." Great. I agree, however uncomfortable it is. But would Capon really put that pedophile in a Sunday school class? REALLY? And is it judgmental to say that pedophile can't teach Sunday school? REALLY?
Again, the false dichotomy, in starker terms now, is that we can only choose between:
1. Grace - let people do whatever they want. Don't stop cheating pastors from preaching or pedophiles from teaching Sunday school.
2. Judgmentalism - What, you think you can save yourself?
There's some space in there. No, I don't think I can save myself. No, I don't think we can fix the world. Yes, there's grace for even the pedophile. But I'm not letting him run the children's ministry.
I was listening to a podcast interviewing Will Willimon, an old Methodist preacher. He spoke of "transformative grace", the idea grace can change people. That reminds me of one of the first Christian books i remember reading, over 2 decades ago: Just Like Jesus by Max Lucado. The tagline was Jesus loves you just the way you are, but refuses to keep you that way. We see it in sanctification, in the spiritual disciplines. Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline is not how to practice earning God's love but how to put yourself in a place to be changed.
I think Capon serves us well in reminding us of the scandal of grace (though I suppose I think Philip Yancey does it better in What's So Amazing About Grace). Maybe he was being intentionally subversive. But after a while the tediousness, along with the false dichotomy, just got to me.
Capon would say I'm trying to earn my salvation and fix the world on my own.
I'd say no, I know I can't do either of those things and I don't think I'm better than anyone. I'm also not going to let a pedophile near my kids, a drunk drive me home or tell a woman abused by her husband to just take it and stop being so judgmental. I mean, honestly, that seems to be what Capon would say to an abused wife. "Who are you to judge? You're no better." At that point, when grace is just "don't judge" then people just may get hurt.
We need a grace as beautiful and subversive as Capon describes. But we also need a grace that transforms people. I don't see much transformation in this book.
July 14, 2018
The best treatment of the parables I’ve ever read.
November 9, 2024
I'm real conflicted on this one. Some parts of this book deserve 5 stars and other parts 1 star.
On the one hand, this book probably made me think more about grace than anything I've ever read or heard. If you apply his arguments only to what we do to deserve being saved in the first place (absolutely nothing) then there is a lot of really beautiful, poignant theology here. I'd also add that he has to be one of the most entertaining Christian writers I've ever read - who knew you could chuckle so much from a several hundred page theology book?
On the other hand, I think most of Capon's arguments are just straight up incorrect. He comes to the Bible with a preconceived notion of what is involved in salvation - that nothing we do after having initial faith has any consequence or importance - and then does some serious butchering and ignoring of texts to try to prove his point. In the process, he makes the entire Christian life absolutely meaningless and ignores a slew of passages about being saved in order to be transformed and do good in the world. Even though he is definitely not fundamentalist, his gospel ends up resembling fundamentalism because the only important thing is "getting saved" through faith and ending up in Heaven (although his Heaven is full of a lot more partying than fundamentalist Heaven.) Quite a few times his argument sounded like "I know you're thinking this parable means x, because that's what it says and what every person ever has agreed it means, but really it means the complete opposite of x because that's what fits with my theology." He also verges on universalism quite a bit, in his own weird sort of way.
Maybe worth a read for his treatment of saving grace. Just know you'll probably be saying "uhhh, no" a lot. Overall, I much prefer The Supper of the Lamb.
On the one hand, this book probably made me think more about grace than anything I've ever read or heard. If you apply his arguments only to what we do to deserve being saved in the first place (absolutely nothing) then there is a lot of really beautiful, poignant theology here. I'd also add that he has to be one of the most entertaining Christian writers I've ever read - who knew you could chuckle so much from a several hundred page theology book?
On the other hand, I think most of Capon's arguments are just straight up incorrect. He comes to the Bible with a preconceived notion of what is involved in salvation - that nothing we do after having initial faith has any consequence or importance - and then does some serious butchering and ignoring of texts to try to prove his point. In the process, he makes the entire Christian life absolutely meaningless and ignores a slew of passages about being saved in order to be transformed and do good in the world. Even though he is definitely not fundamentalist, his gospel ends up resembling fundamentalism because the only important thing is "getting saved" through faith and ending up in Heaven (although his Heaven is full of a lot more partying than fundamentalist Heaven.) Quite a few times his argument sounded like "I know you're thinking this parable means x, because that's what it says and what every person ever has agreed it means, but really it means the complete opposite of x because that's what fits with my theology." He also verges on universalism quite a bit, in his own weird sort of way.
Maybe worth a read for his treatment of saving grace. Just know you'll probably be saying "uhhh, no" a lot. Overall, I much prefer The Supper of the Lamb.
December 3, 2022
There were threads that ran through this book that were remarkable and transformative. To just name one, the theme of right and left-handed power is a magnificent ode to the God who refuses the way of hard power and great shows of strength. He does not come into the world guns-blazing to defeat our enemies (“the righteous” is not code for my inner circle). He is not interested in that project, no matter how much we want to read that into him. Taking up instead the almost imperceptible way of weakness, slowness, and even at times scandalizing non-intervention, his kingdom is at work in the world like a seed. Like a harvest in which the farmer refuses to judge between the righteous and the wicked until the end. I could go on. Threads on the mystery of the kingdom, catholicity, and acceptance-before-exclusion were likewise brilliant. I was challenged to read the Gospels anew and see Jesus as the paradoxical savior that he has always been.
3.5/
3.5/
March 16, 2021
I have been meaning to read this book for a LONG TIME.
Well worth it. Capon is entertaining, though at times borderline sacrilegious. His take on the parables is refreshing and thought-provoking.
Pages 428-430 is especially good.
Well worth it. Capon is entertaining, though at times borderline sacrilegious. His take on the parables is refreshing and thought-provoking.
Pages 428-430 is especially good.
February 26, 2014
Since Jesus didn’t speak to people except by parables, Capon believes we need to continually study them; always with a virgin approach and with our eyes focused on Jesus. Capon looks at the parables through the prism of Jesus, the Light of the World. According to Capon, if we don’t view the world through Jesus, we will get a distorted view of God, his plan and purpose. He compares Jesus to a prism. The colors in light are hidden except when viewed through a prism. In the same way we can only see the full spectrum of colors in the parables when we view them through Jesus; not only by what he said but more importantly, by what he did – the acted out parables. When we view the parables through the prism of Jesus, we see God as a left-handed, right-brain God of vindication; not a right-handed, left-brain vindictive God of fury. It’s in this way that we can gain a deeper insight to the mystery of the kingdom of God and for Capon this is what the Bible is all about.
Capon does an excellent job at addressing what he considers to be two obstacles in understanding the parables. First, people have an overly familiar and shallow approach to reading them and second, the idea that when it comes to the Scriptures, there is nothing new under the sun. Capon eradicates both of these obstacles by dissecting the parables in the larger context of the gospel-the good news of Jesus. He challenges the reader not to accept the old wine of understanding, but to drink of the new wine, in the full spectrum of colors that Jesus himself brings us.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. However, I have point of disagreement with Capon. Although he recognizes Jesus as the source of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness, he doesn’t have anything good to say about the Father or the Holy Spirit. God is love and Father, Son and Holy Spirit are and in complete union and communion.
In John 15, Jesus is the true vine and the Father is the vinedresser.
Jesus also said, “If you have seen me, you’ve seen the Father,” (John 14:9).
“I and the Father are one,” (John 10:30).
“The Father abiding in Me does His works,” (John14:10.
“I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” (John 14:11).
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19 NLT).
Jesus is the complete and total revelation of God; which Capon acknowledges in another place in the book.
Capon does an excellent job at addressing what he considers to be two obstacles in understanding the parables. First, people have an overly familiar and shallow approach to reading them and second, the idea that when it comes to the Scriptures, there is nothing new under the sun. Capon eradicates both of these obstacles by dissecting the parables in the larger context of the gospel-the good news of Jesus. He challenges the reader not to accept the old wine of understanding, but to drink of the new wine, in the full spectrum of colors that Jesus himself brings us.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. However, I have point of disagreement with Capon. Although he recognizes Jesus as the source of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness, he doesn’t have anything good to say about the Father or the Holy Spirit. God is love and Father, Son and Holy Spirit are and in complete union and communion.
In John 15, Jesus is the true vine and the Father is the vinedresser.
Jesus also said, “If you have seen me, you’ve seen the Father,” (John 14:9).
“I and the Father are one,” (John 10:30).
“The Father abiding in Me does His works,” (John14:10.
“I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” (John 14:11).
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19 NLT).
Jesus is the complete and total revelation of God; which Capon acknowledges in another place in the book.
March 20, 2020
This is 3 books packaged into a single edition: The Parables of the Kingdom (covering the parables in the Gospels prior to the Feeding of the Five Thousand), The Parables of Grace (covering the parables between the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the Triumphal Entry), and The Parables of Judgement (covering the parables between the Triumphal Entry and the Crucifixion). In these books, he walks through all the parables in the Gospels as well as parabolic sayings and acted out parables.
In The Parables of the Kingdom, the author emphasizes how the parables talk about the Kingdom as universal. The Kingdom is here now in a mysterious way, even if we don't recognize it. Both the good and the bad are included in the Kingdom, but not everyone will respond to it in a way that makes it a reality in their life. The best response toward the Kingdom is recognizing its overwhelming value and trusting our lives to it.
In The Parables of Grace, the radical grace of God is emphasized. Death and resurrection is a recurring theme in this set of parables. As a result, these parables often contain a "Christ figure" who represents Christ who saved us through His death. Sometimes the "Christ figure" can be surprising (e.g. the man lying almost dead on the road who is helped by the Good Samaritan).
In The Parables of Judgement, the author puts forth the argument that "inclusion before exclusion" is the primary interpretive principle for this set of parables. In these parables, "judgement never comes until after acceptance: grace remains forever the sovereign consideration. The difference between the blessed and the cursed is one thing and one thing only: the blessed accept their acceptance and the cursed reject it; but the acceptance is already in place for both groups before either does anything about it." I found the author's approach to judgement to be reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce.
I found these books to be both interesting, thought-provoking, and sometimes surprising. It can be a lot to take in at times but it gave me a lot to meditate on. I now see many of the parables in a different way as a result. If you are interested in Jesus' parables and/or Christian theology, I'd recommend this book. (But if you get it, don't get the Kindle edition. The Kindle edition doesn't really have a table of contents at all. It seems like all 500+ pages were OCR'ed into one big chapter. So it's worth it to get the print edition.)
In The Parables of the Kingdom, the author emphasizes how the parables talk about the Kingdom as universal. The Kingdom is here now in a mysterious way, even if we don't recognize it. Both the good and the bad are included in the Kingdom, but not everyone will respond to it in a way that makes it a reality in their life. The best response toward the Kingdom is recognizing its overwhelming value and trusting our lives to it.
In The Parables of Grace, the radical grace of God is emphasized. Death and resurrection is a recurring theme in this set of parables. As a result, these parables often contain a "Christ figure" who represents Christ who saved us through His death. Sometimes the "Christ figure" can be surprising (e.g. the man lying almost dead on the road who is helped by the Good Samaritan).
In The Parables of Judgement, the author puts forth the argument that "inclusion before exclusion" is the primary interpretive principle for this set of parables. In these parables, "judgement never comes until after acceptance: grace remains forever the sovereign consideration. The difference between the blessed and the cursed is one thing and one thing only: the blessed accept their acceptance and the cursed reject it; but the acceptance is already in place for both groups before either does anything about it." I found the author's approach to judgement to be reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce.
What counts, therefore, is not what we know (most of that can only count against us) but what he knows. And what he knows is that "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved by him." His saving relationship with the world has already been established - and it will stay established forever. The only question at the end is whether we trusted the truth of it and made it a two-sided relationship, or whether we distrusted it and left it a relationship from his side only. And Jesus alone knows the answer to that question.
Trust him, therefore. And trust him now. There is nothing more to do.
I found these books to be both interesting, thought-provoking, and sometimes surprising. It can be a lot to take in at times but it gave me a lot to meditate on. I now see many of the parables in a different way as a result. If you are interested in Jesus' parables and/or Christian theology, I'd recommend this book. (But if you get it, don't get the Kindle edition. The Kindle edition doesn't really have a table of contents at all. It seems like all 500+ pages were OCR'ed into one big chapter. So it's worth it to get the print edition.)
December 26, 2023
Outstanding. Aside from Walter Wink's Engaging the Powers this is the most engaging, helpful and inspiring theological book that I've read.
February 1, 2016
I wish I had read the book years ago. Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus deals with many of the “hard sayings” of Jesus – his most challenging parables. Capon’s interpretations are new to me; especially interesting is his assertion that Jesus’ parables increasingly focused on death as he nears Jerusalem.
Capon unrelentingly pushes one theme: Jesus’ concern with the “least, last, lost, littlest,” and dead. He is willing to push his thesis to its logical extremes. Somewhere in my recent reading I came across the hymn line “Lay your deadly doing down.” I’m not sure if it was this book or Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, but it certainly fits in the spirit of KGJ. For Capon, the Pharisee and the publican epitomize the centrality of death in Jesus’ teachings. It is not, as it is usually interpreted, a lesson on the virtue of humility. It is the contrast between the dead man who knows he’s dead and the dead man who insists he’s alive. And the one telling the story knows that he soon will be as dead as both of them. For a few days.
Some of Capon’s statements are actually quite shocking – to the point of seeming blasphemous. As one Goodreads reviewer says, “Robert Farrar Capon is a cheery old semi-Marcionite, and an unvarnished antinomian.” To which, Capon would undoubtedly reply, “Guilty as charged” (at least to the antinomian part), and then quote Romans 8:1.
KGJ its flaws: for one thing, Capon paraphrases many of the parables in modern language, which gets tiresome after a while. But these are worth the revelations and surprises the book has to offer.
Capon unrelentingly pushes one theme: Jesus’ concern with the “least, last, lost, littlest,” and dead. He is willing to push his thesis to its logical extremes. Somewhere in my recent reading I came across the hymn line “Lay your deadly doing down.” I’m not sure if it was this book or Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, but it certainly fits in the spirit of KGJ. For Capon, the Pharisee and the publican epitomize the centrality of death in Jesus’ teachings. It is not, as it is usually interpreted, a lesson on the virtue of humility. It is the contrast between the dead man who knows he’s dead and the dead man who insists he’s alive. And the one telling the story knows that he soon will be as dead as both of them. For a few days.
Some of Capon’s statements are actually quite shocking – to the point of seeming blasphemous. As one Goodreads reviewer says, “Robert Farrar Capon is a cheery old semi-Marcionite, and an unvarnished antinomian.” To which, Capon would undoubtedly reply, “Guilty as charged” (at least to the antinomian part), and then quote Romans 8:1.
KGJ its flaws: for one thing, Capon paraphrases many of the parables in modern language, which gets tiresome after a while. But these are worth the revelations and surprises the book has to offer.
September 23, 2014
This is my second Capon book which I liked more than the first I had read ("The Fingerprints of God"). I've changed my rating from a 3 star to a 4 star and back a few times. There are things about this book that I really enjoyed (hence the 4 star) but a few things that I could have taken or left (hence the 3). I'll try to expound for anyone who might be interested. First, I don't know if anyone would fully agree with everything that Capon says. He takes new approaches to the parables that go against thousands of years of understanding. And yet, much of it leaves you asking "how did I not see that before." While I don't think many would agree with everyone...Yes Virginia, I know that we don't fully agree with everyone, but back to my point...I certainly hope that no one would fully ignore him either. I'm not sure that anyone would reads his work with an open mind can ignore him. That is what I love about his writing and thinking. He makes one think about very serious (some might say dangerous) things, but he makes you laugh in the process. He is an extremely gifted writer. I wrestled with the lower rating for two reasons. First, I wish he would delve more into the historical context occasionally (see Kenneth Bailey's "Poet and Peasant" for this). Second, I found the book a bit longish, by which I mean I was ready to be done with it when I came to the end. In fairness, this is a compilation of three books so the repetitiveness has, I'm sure, a lot to do with that.
In the end, I can say that Capon is certainly controversial, but again, his work should not be ignored. I have gained a lot from reading this book on the call to death and resurrection as found in the parables.
In the end, I can say that Capon is certainly controversial, but again, his work should not be ignored. I have gained a lot from reading this book on the call to death and resurrection as found in the parables.
February 5, 2018
I know I’ve only rated this book 3 stars, which, in hindsight and in comparison to other reviewers, may have been too harsh. But I did enjoy this compilation of Farrar’s three volumes on the Parables of Jesus. There are many wonderful insights in here, and Farrar’s understanding of the Catholicity and the Mystery of the Kingdom of God is spot on (especially as demonstrated under what Farrar has labelled the Parables of Grace, in Volume 1 of the compilation). Additionally, I’m totally on side with Farrar’s understanding of the Kingdom’s and Jesus’ emphasis on the Lost, the Last, the Least, and the Lifeless.
However, what’s lacking in these interpretations is cultural and historical context. There’s plenty of great (and important) insights into the Greek wordings of the texts here, but I do feel that the Cultural Hermeneutic provided by Kenneth E. Bailey (see *Jesus Through Middle-Eastern Eyes* or *Poet and Peasant*), and the Historical/Political Contexts provided by N. T. Wright (see his *Christian Origins and the Question of God* volumes), provide a much better setting in which to see the “thrust and the parry” of Jesus’ parables with the social/political/religious ideologies of his own environment.
That’s not to say that Farrar’s conclusions are way off. On the contrary, much of what he posits would have been reinforced by Bailey’s and Wright’s work.
In summary, I would recommend that this is an essential study on the parables. Personally, I will continue to refer to this, and I anticipate that I will quote from it often. But should this be the only book in your toolkit? No. But that’s not a bad thing. In the same sense, this shouldn’t be the only review you read of this book.
—Tristan Sherwin, author of *Love: Expressed*
However, what’s lacking in these interpretations is cultural and historical context. There’s plenty of great (and important) insights into the Greek wordings of the texts here, but I do feel that the Cultural Hermeneutic provided by Kenneth E. Bailey (see *Jesus Through Middle-Eastern Eyes* or *Poet and Peasant*), and the Historical/Political Contexts provided by N. T. Wright (see his *Christian Origins and the Question of God* volumes), provide a much better setting in which to see the “thrust and the parry” of Jesus’ parables with the social/political/religious ideologies of his own environment.
That’s not to say that Farrar’s conclusions are way off. On the contrary, much of what he posits would have been reinforced by Bailey’s and Wright’s work.
In summary, I would recommend that this is an essential study on the parables. Personally, I will continue to refer to this, and I anticipate that I will quote from it often. But should this be the only book in your toolkit? No. But that’s not a bad thing. In the same sense, this shouldn’t be the only review you read of this book.
—Tristan Sherwin, author of *Love: Expressed*
February 27, 2009
I got this book from the shelves of my late father-in-law, Gilbert Callaway, without whom I might not ever have found Christianity expressed in intellectually challenging terms. The author of this book (actually a collection of three separately published volumes) is enough of a scholar to be working from about ten different new testament texts, including several in Greek. He is also secure enough to be extremely free in the way he expresses his (orthodox) theses, kind of like G. K. Chesterton, though not as droll. What this book does is to present Jesus' teachings in the parables as a coherent, unified body of work that builds toward a single master message. I have read serious Christian works for fifteen years, but this one taught me more than any of them except Hans Kung's On Being a Christian.
July 20, 2012
I was surprised to learn that the author was a universalist. But when that was defined on Wikipedia as someone who believes everyone is going to heaven because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world then it made more sense. He is also big on kingdom theology meaning that the church is able to bring God's kingdom to earth by their good works instead of the church being the kingdom of God on earth and waiting for it's complete fulfillment when Christ returns.
Anyway, enough background. I think Capon really nails what Jesus is getting at in the parables - that His kingdom will not be an earthly glorious kingdom but one that is yet to come. I think I will have to buy this book because it's taken me too long to read so far and I had to take it back... watch this space.
Anyway, enough background. I think Capon really nails what Jesus is getting at in the parables - that His kingdom will not be an earthly glorious kingdom but one that is yet to come. I think I will have to buy this book because it's taken me too long to read so far and I had to take it back... watch this space.
September 11, 2014
One of the most in-depth books I've read, thought provoking and challenging. I've spent two years in these pages, digesting chunks at a time, letting them simmer in the furnace of my mind and heart before moving on. The Greek is difficult, but Mr. Capon does his finest to keep the reader tracking along, while keeping to the original scriptural text. This book has added greatly to my understanding of Christ's parables and overall message and mission. I would highly recommend this book, but not to the casual reader or the faint of heart. However, if you chose to embark, know that you're in for a serious ride.
April 23, 2014
This book focuses on the parables of Jesus. Robert Capon provides incredible insight into the meanings of the parables from a perspective that I would have never considered. I read this book in conjunction with the book "Up From the Ashes: A Personal Journey Through A Fallen World," by William Landon. The combination of these two books aided me in making a much stronger connection in my personal relationship with God. I highly recommend this book for those who want a better understanding of Jesus' parables. I recommend the combination of the two books for those who want to understand the God's purpose for us.
February 5, 2009
Pure brilliance. I just hope that one day I have the capacity to fully understand the arguments in this book. It's one of those where I was only able to ready a few pages before my mind was overwhelmingly challenged. Then I'd have to process for a few days. This made for a very long read. It turned my world upside-down.
If you come from Orthodox Christianity (Evangelicalism) and like challenging the status quo then this is the book for you. A very refreshing look at the parables of Christ.
If you come from Orthodox Christianity (Evangelicalism) and like challenging the status quo then this is the book for you. A very refreshing look at the parables of Christ.
August 22, 2011
Outrageous and excellent. All the parables are about grace, even the ones about the kingdom and judgment. Only sinners qualify for the kingdom. That includes everybody. Everybody will be included unless they willingly exclude themselves. Caveat: no theology of the Christian life, no living by the law of love. All such attempts to articulate a "practice" are condemned as attempts at saving ourselves or "works righteousness."
January 20, 2014
While I read this book some time ago, I must say that this writer has reignited the wonderment and mystery of Christ's words. Capon has a God given gift of providing yet another facet of the diamond in Jesus' teaching. Read and you will be challenged. Ponder and you will stand amazed. Consider and you will be overwhelmed by God's grace and readiness to receive you.
January 22, 2016
You won't read a better book this year, certainly be better exegesis of Jesus' parables.
Just phenomenal. A brilliant revelation on God's grace. Teeters on the cliff of universalism, as any good lover of mercy should, yet brings us back to the holiness of God and the reality of hell, through the triumph of grace.
Just phenomenal. A brilliant revelation on God's grace. Teeters on the cliff of universalism, as any good lover of mercy should, yet brings us back to the holiness of God and the reality of hell, through the triumph of grace.
January 19, 2019
Strange book about the parables of Jesus, grouped into three themes, what Capon calls Parables of the Kingdom, Parables of Grace, and Parables of Judgment. I find the theses as presented in the intros to each book deeply thought-provoking and compelling, such that I've been chewing on them for weeks. In the first he explains the difference between what he calls right-handed power - visible, obvious, strong actions - and left-handed power - indirect, non-obvious actions - and how the world wanted and expected God to use right-handed power to further his Kingdom. Indeed, we still have those expectations today. But he believes that what he calls the Kingdom Parables of Jesus show that His intention is to grow the Kingdom through left-handed power. The other two books emphasize the primacy of death and grace in God's redemptive plan, and how crazy that grace is, and how people continually want to qualify it with some measure of works. It's all interesting and compelling, good stuff.
What's weird is when the book gets into the parables themselves, which of course is the majority of the content. I found myself taking issue with virtually every single one. Some of my disagreements were minor, but some were pretty fundamental - it seems crazy the lengths he goes to stretch an interpretation to fit his argument. He seems to selectively pull in supporting arguments from other parts of Scripture when it helps, but ignore it when it doesn't. He also continually says that the parable doesn't mean what it says to mean, or what people generally think it means, that Jesus said it just in play or in a sarcastic manner, with no real support except that it better fits his narrative. It's bewildering.
Additionally, his writing style has ticks I find annoying. For example, he constantly inserts the command: “Watch.” in his writing. It's just a strange thing to read.
In the end, I agree deeply with his thesis, and disagree strongly with the majority of his interpretations. That makes in a strange book. In the end, despite my many disagreements, I find myself still ruminating on his ideas so much, I think it's a worthwhile read.
What's weird is when the book gets into the parables themselves, which of course is the majority of the content. I found myself taking issue with virtually every single one. Some of my disagreements were minor, but some were pretty fundamental - it seems crazy the lengths he goes to stretch an interpretation to fit his argument. He seems to selectively pull in supporting arguments from other parts of Scripture when it helps, but ignore it when it doesn't. He also continually says that the parable doesn't mean what it says to mean, or what people generally think it means, that Jesus said it just in play or in a sarcastic manner, with no real support except that it better fits his narrative. It's bewildering.
Additionally, his writing style has ticks I find annoying. For example, he constantly inserts the command: “Watch.” in his writing. It's just a strange thing to read.
In the end, I agree deeply with his thesis, and disagree strongly with the majority of his interpretations. That makes in a strange book. In the end, despite my many disagreements, I find myself still ruminating on his ideas so much, I think it's a worthwhile read.
November 18, 2020
A comprehensive study of the Gospel parables that has many searing insights as well as a number of "adventurous" conclusions about Christ's teaching. Rev. Capon's analysis of the parables arise from his thesis that the Kingdom of God is present, actual and catholic (e.g., "The Sower"); that God's grace allows us to accept our own death to self in light of the mercy of His own death (e.g. "The Prodigal Son"); that all people (whether saints or sinners) are already saved by Christ's Passion and Resurrection since we will not lead sinless lives nor earn salvation through good works (e.g., "The Pharisee and the Publican"); and that God's judgment is a solely matter of whether we trust Him enough to accept His invitation to eternal life (e.g., "The Wise and Foolish Virgins"). As Capon puts it: "A judgment that works only by punishing sinners and rewarding the righteous produces all hell and no kingdom." For Capon, God is not like Santa Claus counting up the merits and demerits of the naughty and nice in determining His judgment. According to Capon, no one is excluded from the eternal Wedding Feast who has not already been included. To say the least, this is a provocative book and well worth reading by anyone who wants a highly thoughtful (if not always agreeable) analysis of the Gospel parables.
December 30, 2019
What a provocative and gospel-filled read.
Capon has been an author quoted by many of my teachers and I finally took the opportunity to read this combined volume on the parables of Jesus. The book was full of challenging perspective and poetic critique of our tendencies in the Church.
Capon talked a lot about left-handed power versus right-handed power. His focus on death and resurrection in Jesus's teaching was challenging for me; at times I felt like it was overdone (and he acknowledged that the reader would be feeling that way, but kept insisting on it nonetheless), but this is the kind of challenge that helps me grow and "bothers" my perspective in a good way.
I also found Capon's commitment to the authority of the Text and his critique of cold textual criticism to be very, very refreshing — even from an Episcopalian perspective. Such an inspiring part of his voice.
I kept reading portions of the book to whoever might be seated around me as I thought his perspective had just enough grace to be received well, but just enough prophetic poetry to be convicting. It was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone who considered themselves well-versed in the teachings and ministry of Jesus.
Capon has been an author quoted by many of my teachers and I finally took the opportunity to read this combined volume on the parables of Jesus. The book was full of challenging perspective and poetic critique of our tendencies in the Church.
Capon talked a lot about left-handed power versus right-handed power. His focus on death and resurrection in Jesus's teaching was challenging for me; at times I felt like it was overdone (and he acknowledged that the reader would be feeling that way, but kept insisting on it nonetheless), but this is the kind of challenge that helps me grow and "bothers" my perspective in a good way.
I also found Capon's commitment to the authority of the Text and his critique of cold textual criticism to be very, very refreshing — even from an Episcopalian perspective. Such an inspiring part of his voice.
I kept reading portions of the book to whoever might be seated around me as I thought his perspective had just enough grace to be received well, but just enough prophetic poetry to be convicting. It was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone who considered themselves well-versed in the teachings and ministry of Jesus.
October 21, 2024
"Left-handed power, in other words, is precisely paradoxical power: power that looks for all the world like weakness, intervention that seems indistinguishable from nonintervention. More than that, it is guaranteed to stop no determined evildoers whatsoever. It might, of course, touch and soften their hearts. But then again, it might not. It certainly didn't for Jesus; and if you decide to use it, you should be quite clear that it probably won't for you either. The only thing it does insure is that you will not - even after your chin has been bashed in - have made the mistake of closing any interpersonal doors from your side.
Which may not, at first glance, seem like much of a thing to insure, let alone like an exercise worthy of the name of power. But when you come to think of it, it is power - so much power, in fact that it is the only thing in the world that evil can't touch. God in Christ died forgiving. With the dead body of Jesus, he wedged open the door between himself and the world and said, 'There! Just try and get me to take that back!'"
Which may not, at first glance, seem like much of a thing to insure, let alone like an exercise worthy of the name of power. But when you come to think of it, it is power - so much power, in fact that it is the only thing in the world that evil can't touch. God in Christ died forgiving. With the dead body of Jesus, he wedged open the door between himself and the world and said, 'There! Just try and get me to take that back!'"
August 10, 2017
The Most Comprehensive and Challenging Reading of All the Parables of Jesus
Capon not only accomplishes a life's work in this three volume thesis, he does so with so much conviction—and so much pluck—that it leaves you hungry for more. The exposition follows such a simple but powerful framework: The kingdom is everywhere, is controversial, and demands a response; Grace is so complete as to reject anyone that can't resign from their own merits; Judgment is only understood through the lens of the grace of the invitation to the kingdom to the "last, little, least, lost, and dead."
Capon not only accomplishes a life's work in this three volume thesis, he does so with so much conviction—and so much pluck—that it leaves you hungry for more. The exposition follows such a simple but powerful framework: The kingdom is everywhere, is controversial, and demands a response; Grace is so complete as to reject anyone that can't resign from their own merits; Judgment is only understood through the lens of the grace of the invitation to the kingdom to the "last, little, least, lost, and dead."
April 15, 2025
You may think you know the parables of Jesus—think again. Here is the good news of grace repeated and exposed in ways that are precious comfort and joyous assurance of our Creator, Redeemer and Friend. Reading it may take a couple of years as it did me, but oh what a blessing. Or as Father Robert admonishes the reader as he concludes this trilogy—“He is the Love that will not let us go. If anybody can sort it all out, he can; if he can’t, nobody ever will. Trust him, therefore. And trust him now. There is nothing more to do.”
November 25, 2025
"Grace doesn’t sell;" says Father/chef/word artist Capon: "you can hardly even give it away, because it works only for losers and no one wants to stand in that line."
This book is very actually informative and thought provoking on the parables, but it does pirouette skillfully and joyfully around historical orthodoxy and the 'plain reading' of many of them much of the time. (And more or less ignores any Pauline information on the necessity of interpreting in a more broadly scriptural way.)
Fun and energetic and worth thinking about!
This book is very actually informative and thought provoking on the parables, but it does pirouette skillfully and joyfully around historical orthodoxy and the 'plain reading' of many of them much of the time. (And more or less ignores any Pauline information on the necessity of interpreting in a more broadly scriptural way.)
Fun and energetic and worth thinking about!
January 10, 2018
This is a marvelous book (or really 3 books that were republished in one). For a serious, conservative Christian it may well be quite uncomfortable. For a serious, liberal Christian is may well also be uncomfortable. Capon challenges much that we serious Christians think is so. You may end up disagreeing, but you cannot say that he hasn't made his argument based on the scriptures. I highly recommend it.
April 3, 2019
Capon is at his best here. Providing both pastoral and theological insights into the very challenging parables of Jesus. No matter where you fall (evangelical, mainline, etc.) this book has something for you.
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