Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed [Paperback]

William R. Herzog II (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1994

William Herzog shows that the focus of the parables was not on a vision of the glory of the reign of God but on the gory details of the way oppression served the interests of the ruling class. The parables were a form of social analysis, as well as a form of theological reflection. Herzog scrutinizes their canonical form to show the distinction between its purpose for Jesus and for evangelists. To do this, he uses the tools of historical criticism, including form criticism and redaction criticism.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William R. Herzog II was formerly Sallie Knowles Crozer Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York. His books include Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed; Jesus, Justice, and the Reign of God: A Ministry of Liberation; and The Faith of Fifty Million: Baseball, Religion, and American Culture, all published by WJK.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press; 1st edition (May 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664253555
• ISBN-13: 978-0664253554
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jesus aka "Paulo Freire", January 18, 2000

By 

Loren Rosson III (New Hampshire, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed (Paperback)

Herzog tells us that Jesus' parables were originally "earthy stories with heavy meanings" as opposed to "earthly stories with heavenly meanings", not so much about the kingdom of God per se, even if they hinted at implications about his coming reign on earth. Much like the 20th-century Paulo Freire, Jesus was teaching people that life under exploitation and oppression wasn't inevitable; and the parables explored how the Jewish peasantry might respond to distressing situations in order to break violence and poverty.

The stories did this by depicting everyday life (to which peasants had long since resigned themselves) only to introduce shocking departures from it. For instance, an elite goes to the marketplace to exploit groups of day-laborers, but one of the day-laborers challenges him (Mt.20:1-15). Lazarus, a destitute man, ends up in Abraham's bosom, while a rich man burns in Hades, destined for an even worse place (Lk.16:19-31). A retainer buries his master's money instead of investing it to make more, and then he blows the whistle on the tyrant (Mt.25:14-28/Lk.19:12-24). A widow is treated unjustly in court, but she relentlessly and publicly refuses to accept the judge's verdict (Lk.18:2-5). A messianic king forgives a colossal debt, but this messiah turns out to be not such a benign sweetie-pie after all (Mt.18:23-34). Like Friere, Jesus empowered people by allowing them to understand the world on their own terms for a change. And just as Freire was arrested and exiled, the Galilean was arrested and crucified.

Talk about thinking outside the box. If Herzog is right, most commentators have been clueless for ages. The masters and landowners in these stories aren't ciphers for God. Just the opposite: they're exactly as portrayed. This book (and its sequel, "Jesus, Justice, and the Reign of God") provides an especially insightful window onto the historical Jesus, whose concerns were forever with those at the bottom of the social heap.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing, August 23, 2003

By 

The Rev. Dr. Daniel J. G. G. Block - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed (Paperback)

Professor Herzog's work is not the socialist denial of the Gospel that it has been accused of being. Neither is it an overly difficult text, as some reviewers have claimed.

Instead, it is a thoughtful, scholarly, re-examination of the parables, which raises the possibility of alternate readings, more appropriate to the first century a.d., rural, Palestinian context in which the parables were first proclaimed. Professor Herzog's work is challenging. It refuses to accept as sacrosanct any of the old verities that many of us were taught years ago in seminary.

In a modified form of redaction criticism, Professor Herzog closely examines each parable in its canonical form, and then seeks to work back to the most plausible words of Jesus, consistent with Biblical archeology and the sociology of religion. The results are new possibilities for proclamation.

This is not a book for the casual reader, or those who wish to maintain long-held beliefs at any cost. However, for educated seekers of truth this book is a gem.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Controversial, but a great approach to the parables, November 15, 2004

By 

Brion Brooks (Grand Rapids, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed (Paperback)

I was introduced to William Herzog's book while taking a seminary course on the New Testament Parables. The professor included Herzog to provide some "angularity" to the more traditional approaches of other scholars and commentaries we were reading. And that it did.

Herzog is an acquired taste. For those with a more conservative bent, his liberation theology with Marxist ideology may be off-putting at first. In my opinion, his premise that Jesus' audience would have understood the parables through a Marxist lens limits the value of his interpretations. I think the work of the Context Group (Bruce Malina, et al) simply don't support that theory. But I do give him credit for being up front about his agenda.

Having said that, I still think the book is definitely worth buying. In particular, I very much appreciated his discussion of the work of Paulo Friere. This section of the book is dense, but worth the effort.

Herzog develops the premise that the parables were not designed to `teach' in the traditional sense, but to help the listeners break free of their perceptual limitations and see the world as a different reality. In this way, he compares Jesus' use of parables with Friere's work in `liberating' the self-defeating mindsets of illiterate peasants.

I found this approach to be very helpful in my own studies of the parables. Herzog's steadfastly refuses to too-quickly `spiritualize' the parables. Instead, he focuses first on the emotional or even visceral responses of the audiences to whom the parables were directed. By intently looking for the emotional reactions first, he helps to show the impact of the parables beyond simple `sermon illustrations.'

While I can't always agree with Herzog's conclusion regarding what that reaction would have been, the approach gives new insights into parable interpretation.