"This book is not only absorbingly readable but important. For its themes engage effectively with main dilemmas not only of formal theology but of current piety and witness." - Amos N. Wilder, Andover Newton Quarterly "This book is immensely valuable for its persuasive illustrations of the parabolic and metaphoric imagination. McFague attends both to the interpretive and the evaluative levels of hermeneutics. Her readings of specific parables, poems, stories, and autobiographies are insightful and relevant to her thesis that what religious language 'says' is 'conceptually imperceivable and inexpressible.'" - Mary Gerhart, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "It is at the very least a fine guide to one important direction that theological hermeneutics might take, and more than that, it testifies confidently to the presence of still unplumbed resources of the biblical word and its secular counterpart that are there for the imagination's appropriation." - Robert Detweiler, Religious Studies Review "Everyone interested in theology will be stimulated by Sallie McFague's mediating theological position and the form of thinking and discourse she espouses. Those interested in the intercourse between theology and literature will be stimulated by the way she links the two and the perceptive way she handles her literary examples. Biblical scholars will undoubtedly note her primacy of the parables as the central corpus of the biblical records. Preachers of the church will be strengthened by the concern McFague has for the Christian community and the importance of the word through the words of the preachers. With this variety of concerns, Speaking in Parables will have a deservedly wide reading and, perhaps even more important, wide discussion." - Ronald E. Sleeth, Perkins School of Theology Journal

David Buttrick provides an introduction to the parables with a discussion of particular homiletical issues preachers face in interpreting parables. Speaking Parables includes commentary on thirty-three different parables with suggestions for preaching each one.

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.

Winner of the 2009 Christianity Today Award for Biblical Studies, Stories with Intent offers pastors and students a comprehensive and accessible guide to Jesus' parables. Klyne Snodgrass explores in vivid detail the historical context in which these stories were told, the part they played in Jesus' overall message, and the ways in which they have been interpreted in the church and the academy. Snodgrass begins by surveying the primary issues in parables interpretation and providing an overview of other parables—often neglected in the discussion—from the Old Testament, Jewish writings, and the Greco-Roman world. He then groups the more important parables of Jesus thematically and offers a comprehensive treatment of each, exploring both background and significance for today. This tenth anniversary edition includes a substantial new chapter that surveys developments in the interpretation of parables since the book's original 2008 publication.

Against a background of the strife-torn land of Judea two thousand years ago, Mika Waltari has written what is certainly his most important novel. Seeking the meaning to his life in the study of philosophy, the young Roman. Marcus Manilianus, discovers in an Alexandrian library a vast number of predictions, all tending to confirm his own feeling that the world is about to enter upon a new era. Two chance encounters with Jews who proclaim the coming of a world leader whom they call the Messiah or King, cause Marcus to resolve to make a visit to the Holy City of the Jews. He arrives outside Jerusalem in time to see crowds—some curious, some shocked—staring up at three crosses on a nearby mound. Above the center cross, an inscription had been fixed: JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS. The quest that ensues leads Marcus through all parts of Jerusalem and into contact with men and women of all stations of life who had known this remarkable man. And by degrees, wonderful if strange things are revealed to him of Jesus’ teaching, and he experiences the odd sensation of almost believing in the destiny of this crucified Roman among the alien Jews, Stands alone on the borderline of two worlds, feelings he belongs to neither, and it becomes vital to him to find “the way, “the Kingdom,” to again knowledge and certainty, not merely belief. What follows, as Marcus pursues his search for the promised secret of the Kingdom, bring to a climax as exciting and deeply moving a novel as Mika Waltari, certainly one of the world’s outstanding historical novelists, has ever written. It is a story of a time long past, yet it deals with a theme as modern as today: the dilemma of modern man and his culture in gaining and retaining a faith. And always present throughout the novel is the splendor, the irony and humor which have so delighted millions of readers of other Waltari novels from The Egyptian to The Etruscan.

2022 Catholic Media Association first place award in scripture: academic studies In this book, which covers all of Jesus’ parables, award-winning author Gerhard Lohfink takes a closer look at the origins of each one—its shape, its realistic details, but most of all its original message and the situation into which it was once spoken. Jesus’ parables speak in bold images of the kingdom of God, making it present to us as they reveal something of the mystery of his own person. Lohfink also offers a review of some of the scholarship in this area—as this topic has sustained research on Jesus since the first telling of these stories—but not for the purposes of debate. His reflections interpret the forty parables and show how they speak of the coming of the reign of God, lead us to Jesus, and reveal the mystery of Jesus himself.