What a disservice, not only to itself but to a world perpetually sinking in the quagmire of religiosity, when it harps on creed, cult, and conduct as the touchstones of salvation. In “The First Parable of Grace: The Coin in the Fish’s Mouth,” his third chapter, Capon says that it is very sad “when the church acts as if it is in the religion business rather than in the Gospel-proclaiming business. Therefore when Jesus sets us a little child as an example, he is setting up not a winsome specimen of all that is simple and charming but rather one of life’s losers” (p. In Jesus’ time, and for most of the centuries since, childhood was almost always seen as a less than human condition that was to be beaten out of children as soon as possible. “We twentieth-century Christians-with our basically nineteenth-century view of childhood as a wonderful and desirable state-miss the point of the passage. Here are just a few of the passages in the book that I copied into my journal: In addition to the fairly detailed New Testament study, including explanation of Greek words, there are also repeated remarks relevant to contemporary times. Some readers may even be offended by the radical nature of Capon's understanding of grace. I was not disappointed.Īs the title indicates, this work deals only with those parables of Jesus which especially emphasize grace, and Capon has a remarkable understanding of the breadth and depth of God's grace. 5, 2013, and I read this book in memory and appreciation of him.
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