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June 15, 2006
The Emerging Parables
Topics: Exegetical FallaciesAs noted by EmergentNo, Gary E. Gilley reviews Brian McLaren's latest book:
"McLaren reasons that believers have long misunderstood the true gospel because Jesus’ message was not given in a straight-forward manner but in a secret, codified form. The parables (pp. 39-49) were the primary vehicle Jesus used to “conceal His deepest message” (p. 4). As a result, only now have we finally unearthed the treasure that Jesus hid. The secret message revealed a secret plan having to do with His kingdom. The secret plan is not that the Lord came to set us free from sin and bring us God’s righteousness; He didn’t come to start a new religion. He “came to start a political, social, religious, artistic, economic, intellectual and spiritual revolution that would give birth to a new world” (p. 4).Parables are distinguished from other literary figures in that they are narrative in form but figurative in meaning. Parables use both similes and metaphors to make their analogies, and the rhetorical purposes of parables are to inform, convince, or persuade their audiences. Pedagogically Jesus utilized parables to motivate hearers to make proper decisions. To Jesus' original audiences the parables both revealed and concealed new truths regarding God's kingdom program. Those who rightly responded were called disciples and to them it was granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. The same truth was concealed from those who, because of hardened hearts, were unreceptive to the message of Jesus.
That said, it is dangerous to draw doctrines from parables and problematic to infer unique truths from details within parables. However, it is exegetically fatal to draw core principles from details that are inferred and not even present.
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Posted by calvin at June 15, 2006 07:24 PM
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