Table of Contents
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 Man
What 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 Master
The 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 Master
The 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 Inquiry
Barriers 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 Inquiry
Using "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 Father
Parental 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 Landowner
Giving 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 Genesis
The Elder Son
The Younger Son
The Linking Symbol of "Robe"
How the God of Some Becomes the God of All
Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
Index
