In this startlingly original interpretation, Ford explores seven of the longer parables attributed to Jesus. Bypassing the assumption that the superior character represents God and the subordinate one the Christian believer, Ford focuses instead on how persons, long separated by inequality, are called upon to collaborate. Drawing on his own psychotherapy training, Ford offers novel insights into ways the characters persist in their mutual misunderstandings. He then shows how Jesus' stories envelop listeners in these same distortions, only to lure them-and ourselves-into the work of imagining reconciliation.
Richard Q. Ford, M.Div., Ph D., is a clinical psychologist in the private practice of psychotherapy in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Introduction Idealizing the Superior Character Collapsing Parable Time Ignoring What Does Not Make Sense The Work of Parable Listening I. A Manager and a Rich ManWhat Makes the Manager Squander The Listener's Contribution Some Resources from Psychotherapy The Manager's Inability to Speak The Rich Man's Inability to Hear The Manager's Despair The Rich Man's Bind Listening the Way a Therapist Listens An Invitation to Decide II. Three Slaves and a MasterThe Exploited Called Upon to Exploit The Last Slave's Impotence The Master's Disappointment The Last Slave's Potency Integrity vs. Mimicry III. A Slave and a MasterThe Slave's Motive Can the Master Change the World? Weighing Magnanimity Against Oppression Guilt Provoking Punishment Anger Contrasted with Grief The Listener's Decision Forgiving and Psychotherapy Forgiving While Controlling Forgiving and Equality IV. A Widow and a Judge and Tenant Farmers and a Landlord: A Beginning InquiryBarriers to Understanding Speechlessness Enhancing Distortion The Absence of Outside Authority The Creation of Alien Worlds V. A Widow and a Judge and Tenant Farmers and a Landlord: A Further InquiryUsing "Transference" to Understand Alien Worlds Using "Project Identification" to Understand Alien Worlds The Listener as Passive Recipient or Authoritative Observer VI. A Younger Son and a FatherParental Giving or Parental Depriving? The Listener's Choosing Separation and Boundaries Separation and Regression Separation and Fragmentation Rescue or Repetition? Exclusion Hidden within Inclusion VII. An Elder Son and a Father and Laborers and a LandownerGiving So Much and Receiving So Little Paternal Failure and Fraternal Envy Remaining Stuck by Insisting the Other Move Pulling Back in Order to Go Forward Acting Justly or Just Being Civilized? Hoping to Be Honorable While Given to Greed Voicelessness A Too-Insistent Voice Using Generosity to Cover Up Control VIII. How Are These Stories Told-and Heard?How Are These Stories Told? The Presence of Irony The Nature of the Kingdom of God How Are These Stories Heard? Inclusion Leading to Novel Possibility Appendix. Two Sons and a Father in the Book of GenesisThe Elder Son The Younger Son The Linking Symbol of "Robe" How the God of Some Becomes the God of All AcknowledgementsNotes Bibliography Index
