Proclaiming the Parables: Preaching and Teaching the Kingdom of God

by Thomas G. Long

In Proclaiming the Parables , noted preacher and scholar Thomas G. Long moves away from past treatment of the parables primarily as literary devices and moves toward an emphasis on their theological impact as pointers to the kingdom of God. While the parables are indeed significant poetic literary creations that have enchanted readers over the centuries, their main power, he claims, lies in their disclosure of the kingdom of God, which is not merely an idea, nor even just a complex symbol with generative and centrifugal force, but an event : the inbreaking of the life of God into human history and experience. Long sees parables not merely as creative figures of speech but as GPS devices taking hearers to those places where the event of God is happening all around us. This book provides two chapters for each synoptic Gospel. The first focuses on the Gospel as a whole and the parables’ place in it, and the second provides preachers and teachers with detailed exegetical and homiletical commentary for each major parable in that Gospel. Two introductory chapters additionally situate this book in the history and theology of the parables’ interpretation and address questions that preachers have about preaching the parables. Preachers who consult this volume will be informed about each major parable, guided through the controversies regarding interpretation, and stimulated to preach on the parable in fresh, faithful, and creative ways.

460 pages, Hardcover

Published March 12, 2024

Reviews

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forty years of preaching and teaching the parables comes oozing out of every page in Thomas Long’s Proclaiming the Parables. Two features cause this work to stand out to me: First, is exegetical detail. Though not focused on the interpretive intricacies like one would find in an academic commentary, make no mistake: Long is thoroughly versed in the various interpretive options available to the reader. He navigates the debates and continually challenges us to return our gaze to the text and its place within the particular gospel in which we find ourselves. Indeed, his decision to allow each parable to be understood within the context of the specific gospel in which it is found is both refreshing and profoundly insightful. His introductions to each of the Synoptics is worth the price of admission, laying the foundation for engaging the way the parable is used in the gospel itself. Second, Long keeps front and center the challenge of preaching the parables. Arguing that parables are “literary performances” intended to (quoting Snodgrass) “awaken insight. Stimulate (sic) the conscience, and move us to action” (24), Long insists that preaching the parables needs to be “an event” (33). So the homiletical contours of the parable are never far from the surface. Intersections with life today naturally wind their way into reflections in each parable and, even if you don’t agree with each connection Long makes, your imagination comes alive. Put these two elements together—the hermeneutical and homiletical—and you have an invaluable companion for study and preparation that belongs on the shelf of any who seek to understand and proclaim the life and message of Jesus.

[Heidi]

This is SO GOOD. It's speaking deeply to my personal life as well as teaching me more about the gospels and the parables.

[John Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful accessable book on the Parables. Continues to open up these wonderful stories of Jesus.