Parables of Time and Eternity
Ebook
Most people agree that Jesus' parables are about the kingdom of God. But what is that? They seem to have a lot about hell and judgment, but how is that consistent with the Parable of the Prodigal Son and Jesus' search for "lost sheep"? They speak of the "Son of Man," but who or what is that? Some have thought they predict the end of the world, but could that be a failure to understand biblical language? In a new survey of Jesus' parables, Keith Ward proposes that they imply a theology of the universal and unlimited love of God, a moral demand to care for the well-being of all living things, a compassion for the poor and rejected of the earth, an open door of repentance that even death cannot close, the offer of new life in the Spirit, and an ultimate goal of universal creative sharing in the life of the cosmic Christ.
“With his trademark theological learning, spiritual depth, and
literary flair, Keith Ward has breathed new life into Jesus’
parables which have lost their sting for being too often turned
into moral lessons for a bourgeois life. Focusing on their central
theme, namely, the kingdom of God, Parables of Time and
Eternity unfolds the multifaceted meanings of all the parables
for the Christian life. After this book it is impossible to miss
their demand for our conversion of mind and heart.”
—Peter C. Phan, Georgetown University
“Keith Ward’s instructive account of the New Testament parables,
and of the assumptions that underpin modern and revisionist
interpretations of them, is both imaginative and enthralling.
Critical of overly politicized and reductionist portrayals, Ward
detects hidden spiritual meanings in the parables that disclose a
self-understanding in Jesus consonant with the cosmic
interpretation placed on his life in St. John’s Gospel. This is a
detective story with a difference, one that envisages a final
sharing of all in a universal union with Christ, whose call for
self-renunciation movingly pervades the text.”
—John Hedley Brooke, University of Oxford
“Keith Ward’s open and relational personal idealism is an
attractive account of reality for reasons independent of any faith
tradition. In this book, however, Ward shows why the teachings and
life of Jesus strengthen his account. As a cosmic spiritual reality
embodied in human form, Jesus uniquely reveals God as loving and
nonviolent.”
—Thomas Jay Oord, author of The Uncontrolling Love of
God
“Keith Ward is the world’s foremost theological defender of
personal idealism. But does this view of God really describe the
Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke? This little volume takes readers
on a fascinating journey through the parables. Rarely have I read
such a compelling account of how the Jesus theologized in John can
be one and the same with the Jesus remembered in the Synoptic
Gospels.”
―Philip Clayton, Claremont School of Theology at Willamette
University
“Keith Ward offers a very different understanding of the teaching
of Jesus from that which is current and puts forward a view of the
Christian faith which will be highly attractive to those for whom
so much traditional teaching is morally unacceptable.”
—Richard Harries, King’s College, London
- Title: Parables of Time and Eternity
- Author: Keith Ward
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725288454, 9781725288430, 9781725288447, 1725288451, 1725288435, 1725288443
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725288454
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-12-22T05:38:14Z