4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite complete, but completely worthwhile, April 23, 2006
This review is from: The Complete Guide to the Parables: Understanding and Applying the Stories of Jesus (Paperback)
The title doesn't quite fit the book - this is a collection of sermons. Kendall, a terrific preacher, focuses on application in this nearly complete collection of messages about 33 of Jesus' parables. The subtitle ("Understanding and Applying the Stories of Jesus") is really this book's reason for being.
And in that, Kendall succeeds admirably. You won't be able to walk away from this volume and see these stories in the same way again. Just as Jesus' stories were both easily understandable and completely baffling to almost all of His first-century hearers, you'll find that Dr. Kendall's exposition amplifies both of these experiences for you. You'll understand these stories more clearly - and be challenged and convicted by his eminently practical applications.
I occasionally referred to this book in the latter stages of writing my first book on the parables (Parablelife: Living the stories Jesus told in real time - FaithWalk Publishers, 2005 - available here on amazon) and came back to it again and again while writing the sequel (Uprooted: Growing a Parablelife from the Inside Out, scheduled for release by FaithWalk in late 2006). Dr. Kendall's book helped me to focus on the message of the parables in ways that only great preaching can do. I'm grateful for access to these messages.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Well-intentioned, but poorly executed, April 8, 2010
This review is from: The Complete Guide to the Parables: Understanding and Applying the Stories of Jesus (Paperback)
While I appreciate Dr. Kendall's pastoral heart and desire to provide a comprehensive work on the parables, his Complete Guide to the Parables is unfortunately an example of a low standard of biblical exegetical methods. He admits that this book is a compilation of his various sermons on the parables, and though I'm sure he invested some time into research when composing his sermons, this is not at all reflected in the text. He does not appear to have consulted any commentaries or more informed works on the parables, and instead has simply compiled his personal musings on the parables.
He doesn't say anything completely off-base theologically, but his interpretations of the parables do no justice to the context of the passage or even the text itself of each parable and misses the mark as far as what each one meant on the lips of Jesus or in their first-century Palestinian milieu. The danger with this sort of exegetical technique is that it opens the door for these parables to say just about whatever the interpreter wants them to. This book was well-intentioned and Dr. Kendall's heart for ministry is evident, but if you want to read up on the parables, please consult some of the following works on the parables which are far-superior and properly examine the text as well as historical-research on the parables:
Snodgrass, Klyne - Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus
Young, Brad H. - The Parables : Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation
Young, Brad H. - Jesus and his Jewish Parables : Rediscovering the roots of Jesus' teaching
Dodd, C. H. - The Parables of the Kingdom
Blomberg, Craig L. - Interpreting the Parables
Bailey, Kenneth E. - Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke
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