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:

  1. vivid, colorful illustrations, which range from analogy to literature
  2. specific concrete images
  3. common, everyday examples
  4. new or unusual ways of looking at a common issue
  5. pithy, glib language
  6. metaphors, analogies, similies, stories even children can understand
  7. an economy of style with a minimum of embellishment
  8. or take advantage of the experiences the audience brings to the subject
  9. multiple levels of meaning
  10. effective pacing in the telling of the example or story
  11. an example from natural life to get at "truth"
  12. irony to drive a message home
  13. 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
  14. spontaneous adjustments, protractions, alterations in the telling to respond to circumstances and the audience's reactions to the parable
  15. the emotional response of the audience to make its point
  16. the image or story line to convey a message implicit to the story without requiring an explicit statement of message
  17. the responsibility of the audience to interpret correctly
  18. meaningful content, although the content is never as important as the implicit underlying intent and meaning
  19. a heuristic, educational frame which signals something more than a simple story is involved
  20. the unexpected which "knocks the (audience) flat" with the impact of the message

Introduction

Section 2

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