What are Parables?
It is not easy to define parables, much less tell you how to do the "worldly stories with heavenly meanings." I have identified 20 characteristics I have found most parables have:
- vivid, colorful illustrations, which range from analogy to literature
- specific concrete images
- common, everyday examples
- new or unusual ways of looking at a common issue
- pithy, glib language
- metaphors, analogies, similies, stories even children can understand
- an economy of style with a minimum of embellishment
- or take advantage of the experiences the audience brings to the subject
- multiple levels of meaning
- effective pacing in the telling of the example or story
- an example from natural life to get at "truth"
- irony to drive a message home
- timeliness in responding to a critical need the audience may not yet even be aware it has, or conflict within those in the audience that needs resolution
- spontaneous adjustments, protractions, alterations in the telling to respond to circumstances and the audience's reactions to the parable
- the emotional response of the audience to make its point
- the image or story line to convey a message implicit to the story without requiring an explicit statement of message
- the responsibility of the audience to interpret correctly
- meaningful content, although the content is never as important as the implicit underlying intent and meaning
- a heuristic, educational frame which signals something more than a simple story is involved
- the unexpected which "knocks the (audience) flat" with the impact of the message
Introduction
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