The Forty Parables of Jesus Hardcover

’Jesus’ parables are like diamonds,’ writes Lohfink, held within settings that both preserve and protect. The Forty Parables of Jesus presents the content of Jesus’ unique sayings mindful of the traditions that preserved, preached, and interpreted those parables. But Lohfink also provides the larger context in which parables, as provocative short stories with a twist, were heard, read, and understood. Lohfink has deftly written a well-exegeted and researched book that is at the same time eminently readable. The Forty Parables of Jesus witnesses to the ‘unbelievable nearness of God,’ and invites us to embrace the implicit Christology of Jesus’ parables.

Drawing from his magisterial career and vast publications on scripture, Father Lohfink invigorates the discussion on parables for scholars and students alike. With perceptive analysis, he marshals a broad range of examples to expand our knowledge of how these stories undermine our expectations of conventions, ultimately reminding us of what was so compelling about Jesus’s parables. This book is more than a commentary, but a text much like the parables themselves: an invitation to ponder the Good News, rethink the genius of story and enlarge the stunning horizon of the proclamation of the Reign of God.

Drawing on his genius for biblical interpretation that is both intelligent and pastoral, profound and accessible, Gerhard Lohfink turns to an exposition of Jesus’ parables, forty in all. He begins by noting through a selection of parables from a variety of sources, how context and structure add meaning to parables, including those of Jesus. His goal is not to pit the possible original meaning of Jesus’ parables against the layers of meaning derived from their use in the early church and in the Gospels, but to illustrate the rich and varied layers of meaning these characteristic stories of Jesus hold for us as Christians.

Gerhard Lohfink has a wonderful knack for bringing astute analysis of Scripture into thoughtful and pastorally rich engagement with Christian experience. This is a refreshing and revealing portrait of the parables and of Jesus himself.

This is an important book by a distinguished Scripture scholar. While particularly useful for homilists it will also be helpful for those who pray Lectio Divina. It is an inspiring gift for a community in need of hearing the Good News of the reign of God.

The author is such a lucid writer and competent exegete with a grasp of real world applications that anything he writes is pleasant to digest. Highly recommended.

Concerned with the oldest forms of Jesus' parables and what they originally said, this book seeks to unlock these bold and often surprising texts for the reader.