The parable of the good Samaritan is well-known, yet scholarship has not plumbed the depths of its meaning within its first-century Palestinian context. For the majority of Christian history, the parable has suffered either from extreme allegorical treatments or from unimaginative readings limiting the parable to a single-point example story of virtue. A creative reading employing social and historical methods generates a refreshing telling of the story, within Jesus’s context, whereby each variable, from the Samaritan to the priest and even the innkeeper, takes on representative forms, not only indicative of widespread concerns from Jesus’s audience, but also becoming symbols of the eschatological age when the new temple supplants the old.

This publication engages a broad set of narratives, themes, and motifs in Luke-Acts, many of which are treated with social-scientific criticism employing various social, political, historical, and economic paradigms to generate fresh and robust readings of ancient texts. Moreover, most essays contained in this book offer remarkably unique engagements, providing students and scholars the opportunity to further expand the material to make vibrant contributions to their own research projects. With thirteen diverse chapters, this book offers anyone interested in Lukan scholarship a vibrant introduction to various lesser explored elements within Luke’s writings.

Hedrick contends that parables do not teach moral and religious lessons; they are not, in whole or part, theological figures for the church. Rather, parables are realistic narrative fictions that like all effective fiction literature are designed to draw readers into story worlds where they make discoveries about themselves by finding their ideas challenged and subverted--or affirmed. The parables have endings but not final resolutions, because the endings raise new complications for careful readers, which require further resolution. The narrative contexts and interpretations supplied by the evangelists constitute an attempt by the early church to bring the secular narratives of Jesus under the control of the church's later religious perspectives. Each narrative represents a fragment of Jesus's secular vision of reality. Finding himself outside the mainstream of parables scholarship, both ecclesiastical and critical, Hedrick explored a literary approach to the parables in a series of essays that, among other things, set out the basic rationale for a literary approach to the parables of Jesus. These early essays form the central section of the book. They are published here in edited form along with unpublished critiques of a thoroughgoing literary approach and his response.

Leaders lead people, administer and manage resources to their benefits but are not to lord over them. Men are ordained to lead their families from creation. Leaders are responsible and accountable as God’s representatives for good works in families, organizations and nations. Dr. Ufot examines the qualities of true leaders. He explains that circumstantial dynamics in leadership requires adaptability in type, style, and form for sustainability. This implies that true leaders must go through a process of making, apprenticeship, and training to qualify to lead. This is how they learn to fight, solve problems and succeed. True leaders are predestined, called, ordained, equipped, and empowered to lead and fulfill their calling. Leading, however, is not a time to experiment but to execute a God-given vision. God’s grace is sufficient in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to apply leadership tools in all situations. All you have to do is look to the Bible and study leaders that succeeded or failed, and why. This book reveals the why, who, and how of true leadership—and the skills to make leaders to triumph. It is a must read to those seeking to allow God to lead through them.

Liberating the Bible offers readers a handbook to help them make their way through a front-to-back exploration of the riches contained in the Bible. Thomas Calnan Sorenson blends scholarship with a down-to-earth presentation in a survey of the Bible that uncovers the basics of its many books and reveals the persuasive power of its messages to nurture faith, expand understanding, and deepen connections to God. Liberating the Bible organizes its guidance into three parts. In Approaching the Bible, eleven stops on the tour investigate the basics of the Bible, its status in the church, methods for reading and interpreting it, and the grounding of its claims. The second part, The Old Testament, groups the books of this testament and covers over sixteen stops. Each of the stops delves into a book or cluster of books, examining historical background, organization, key passages, and distinctive themes and messages. The third part, The New Testament, provides similar guidance while making eleven stops along the way. If you are one of the millions who have a Bible--or several--on your nightstand, but find yourself confused or intimidated by its size and scope, then this guidebook offers its companionship. It promises to serve as a seasoned and knowledgeable resource to consult as you make your trip through the Bible. It will help you find a deeper faith and stronger ties to God through the Bibles powerful witness.

By this book, I tried to find answers to the questions which don't appear directly in the Gospels. In fact, erothetics is the way of finding the question from the given answer. We have the Gospels, where the writers presented to us what Jesus did. But what if there where some questions, which were common for that time, and un-common for our time-reality? Then was the sermons, when I was astonished by the ministers which proclaimed that Jesus began story-telling, because He didn't knew what to say to the listeners. Or worse even, some ministers 'corrected' Jesus' parables, by this distorting the whole truth. This is why I alone, searched some answers, and by this, I provide You what I did found.