The Parables of the Kingdom

Rating:
Summary: Exciting, frustrating
Review: Capon is, in a word, unorthodox. As a religious writer, he lands somewhere between the religion department and the pulpit. he takes a lot of freedom in attempting to determine what Jesus really was talking about and why, and i keep expecting him to slip into the academish/nonsense talk of religion professors (in my experience) and yet he always works his way out of that.

his perpective is fresh, well thought-out, and deeply rooted in the original language of the biblical text, as well, as much scholarship. i have no doubt that he knows the bible well.

Capon starts to write about the "left-handedness" of God's use of power -- backdoorish, subtle and tricky, doing things like dying to show his power, instead of direct authoritative, thunderboltish use. and i would like to read and know more about this, but he gets away from it, in order to talk about the first set of parables - parables of the kingdom.

his thesis about the nature of the kingdom revolves around its catholicity, mystery, actuality, and hostility. i follow this far, and some of his arguements to back up this thesis are good.

at times, though, i stare in disbelief at his tinkerings. like when he takes the treasure hidden in the field, adds a barn or two to the field, calls it a farm, then says that "buying the farm" is an adage for death, so the parable really is about death. yikes!

all in all, more good than bad here. he is refreshing, challenging, and i've come to recognize that when an author makes me uncomfortable, that's a good thing. this book is not as profound as I want it to be, but has offered some nice twists on old interpretations of the parables.

a passage:

"Oh dear. I hear two objections. Let me interrupt myself to deal with them. The first is: "But hold on. Doesn't Scripture say that there will be some (or even many) who will reject the reconciliation?" Of course it does. But the very hell of hell lies precisely in the fact that its inhabitants will be insisting on a perpetual rejection of an equally perpetual gift. It will be an eternal struggle to escape from the grip of a love that will never let them go. And for that everlasting stand-off, I think, there is not a word in Scripture that is too strong: not the "fire that is not quenched," not the "worm that dieth not," not the "outer darkness," not the "bottomless pit." not the "weeping and gnashing of teeth" -- and certainly not the utterly fruitless "second death".

if you'd like to discuss this book with me, or anything else really, e-mail me at [e-mail].

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking, but flawed
Review: Capon's Parables of the Kingdom is bound to bring about fruitful re-examination of the parables captured in Matthew 13. However, Capon seems to confuse the intent of the Gospel writer in placing these parables together with the intent of Jesus, who, in all likelihood, did not order them in this way. Moreover, Capon, who is a Greek scholar, often focuses on the importance and possible interpretations of Greek words used in the Gospel; as Jesus may not have used these particular Greek words (Matthew was probably written some 40 years after Jesus' death)or may even have told them in Aramaic, this emphasis can be misleading.

Rating:
Summary: A playful, breezy exposition of Jesus' shorter parables
Review: Robert Capon likes to play around with Scripture. In the epilogue of this book, he even advocates playing with Scripture. That style of hermeneutics can open up some new vistas of spiritual insight, but it can also be somewhat dangerous. Capon sees these parables as presenting the Kingdom of God as sort of a subversive presence throughout the whole world, demonstrating what he calls "left-handed" power. He skirts dangerously close to the precipice of universalism, stopping just short of saying that everyone in the world will be saved. He does stop short, to be sure, but rather reluctantly. It's interesting how he believes that when Jesus was asked to explain a couple of his parables, he gave less than satisfactory interpretations, which Capon said he did on purpose. Now, we sure wouldn't want to be tied down by Jesus' explanation, would we?

The tone of this book is playful and almost jocular. It makes for some entertaining reading. Capon, in some areas, would be considered a conservative (he does accept the supernatural) but he has a rather liberal view of grace. Although I'm not totally comfortable with that, I still recommend this book as a very creative way of getting one to think "outside the box" when it comes to these particular parables. I'm sure I will be reading more of Capon in the future.