A Historic-Critical and Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables of the Kingdom: A Language Arts Textbook on the New Testament Parables

© 2012 by Melissa Lynch. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover artwork titled Saint Joseph the Worker by Michael O’Brien. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Author’s portrait by Linda Pelk.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/26/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5317-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5318-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5319-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012913397

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter one

History and Geography of First-Century Palestine

Chapter Two

History and Economic Distribution in First-Century Palestine; Peasantry and the Roman Empire

Chapter Three

The Literary Parables

Chapter Four

Ancient Languages: Greek and Latin

Chapter Five

From Parables to Roman Catholic Teaching

Afterword

Glossary

For My Mother

The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and for your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:13 and 16).

~ Attributed to Jesus of Nazareth

Preface

While teaching junior high students for several years, it became obvious that the most poverty stricken and neglected area of educational resources and creative endeavors lies within the work created for the middle school population. As much as educators are taught best practices, the resources to implement them still remain scarce, if not in an empty wasteland. And, what does exist, does not really relate to the human developmental stage of the actual adolescent that must study it. The resources often lack critical-thinking activities that allow the students to problem-solve both internally (through reading, writing and thinking) and externally (through group work, projects and interaction). Instead they rely on rote grammar school techniques, or otherwise jump far ahead into lecturing.

The exceptionally attentive and wise Maria Montessori believed that it was best to allow junior high students to work on a farm during their fast and furious adolescent years, so that their high energy might be expended in a more efficient way for society. She noted that this age just had too much difficulty sitting and focusing in an ordered classroom when their bodies were growing and changing with such turbulence. And though I agree with Montessori, I also concur with current educational research which propounds that problem-centered projects, social activities as well and skill development tasks that attend to content standards might be a more precise way for educators to respond to this life stage. Though I fully accept that adolescence will always remain an eternal mystery that resists pinning or pegging, I had to offer my best attempt in response to this vacancy.

Therefore, I sought to create a curricular unit for language arts that would begin to give weight, depth and gravity to this hollow void with intelligence, creativity and love. This led me to create a language arts unit on the New Testament Parables. Many students have a natural draw to Jesus of Nazareth, which I admit, makes these metaphorical stories an easy sell. However, even without this early-childhood attachment, many others will be open to hearing them out because they recognize his stimulus and power to influence throughout time. Students are curious about the origin of these ideas, as well as what they actually say because they recognize their profound effect. They want to know the content of this master teacher. Additionally, for practical outcomes, the parables foster literacy. They are usually short in quantity, but not quality, so their structure encourages slower readers who are able to read them to the end without feeling personal discouragement or failure. And further, most students are then able to participate in the discussion and activities on the inherent themes of the parables that are, by their nature, essential for life and relationships because they are grounded in reality. Furthermore, these stories are exceptional teaching tools that respect the listener; they activity create neurological connections by asking the listener to create the moral resolution of the story by harmonizing life on earth with an ideal—on earth as it is in heaven. The parables are grounded within the everyday problems of life, and therefore inspire the intellectual and creative aspects of the students, which may lead them into the recognition of social justice issues, which they may work to resolve.

The curricular unit and text was written in alignment with 7th grade language arts standards, and it may be applied and differentiated for 7th grade and up. This textbook was created to accompany The Parables of the Kingdom curricular unit, and each chapter of the textbook is included within the curricular calendar. The educator may choose to take as much or as little time reading and reviewing the chapters as he or she chooses; the chapters do include extension activities that are not given space on the curricular calendar so this would extend the length of the unit. Additionally, the introduction of this text is intended to show educators how relevant the practice of teaching the parables remains, within the modern milieu of educational philosophy and human development. Therefore, the students may skip over the introduction because it is written for the teachers.

I would like to extend my deepest thanks to my dear friends and family members: Xavier De Boissezon, Christy Ferguson, Frank (my dad) and Jan Lynch, and Lael and Amy Miller (my cousins) who took the time to read over this manuscript and offer their thoughtful insight. I greatly appreciate the care each of you dedicated to this project. I would like to thank Professor David Pleins of Santa Clara University for his wise counsel and creative insight that he offered so generously during the long birth of this curriculum. And, I must thank my mom, Cathy Lynch, for her endless encouragement and support. Thank you.

~ Melissa Lynch

Introduction

In a world we know

The New Testament Parables challenge in the mind in such a way, that they become a full sensory experience, vitalizing the body and spirit for resolution. The body (soma) is the physical aspect of humanity; it is the living and breathing material that allows each person to interrelate with other people and creation, as well as connect to the mind and spiritual aspects of humanity. The body is sensory. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell extend outward into the world and into the eyes of others. Because of physical form people relate to the environment, people and creatures within it. Therefore, humans are innately invested within the purity of the world as it corresponds to the stability of the world. Personal decisions and actions affect the created order and the parables mend trust and good relations into our minds, hearts and lives. Because the human body is designed to relate outside of oneself and humans are connected to each other through the senses, the complexities of the physical environment should be explored and experienced in the most considerate manner. The literary parables ground themselves in real life experiences; therefore they can uproot the problems and questions that weigh on the human condition everyday, and help guide toward a resolution.

John Dewey, the United States preeminent educational philosopher, developed progressive education in the early-twentieth century. His model of education has two distinct, yet symbiotic elements that affect the course of tension for the body and mind that relate to parabolic perception.¹ First, Dewey emphasized that humans are biological (embodied) creatures and their development (growth) can be observed through natural law and thus nurtured in accord with these principles within the education system; and further, in a democratic culture the individual and the community shape each other as they relate to each other (the cataphatic order). Therefore, the character of a person is nurtured by and within the morale of the community and likewise, the character of the community is, often to a large extent, an expansion of the values of the persons who inhabit the community. Furthermore, on a national level, education is for democracy, as democracy is for education. Second, Dewey focused on the importance of personal experiences. He held that personal encounters and conflicts should ignite reflection and abstract thought to " transform a situation in which there is experienced obscurity, doubt, conflict, disturbance of some sort, into a situation that is clear, coherent, settled and harmonious."² Therefore, the mind is activated via encounters within the environment, which humans work to unravel, understand, test, and synthesize.

For Dewey, the sensory nature of human beings allows various stimuli to access the mind. And the mind "tends to dislike what is unpleasant and so to sheer off from an adequate notice of that which is especially annoying..³ Cognitive dissonance often sparks a search for connections and reasons, that is, for synthesis. This process is endless because human beings are always absorbing new sensory material into the fold of their life experiences: The moment one thinks of a possible solution and holds it in suspense, he turns back to the facts. He has now a point of view that leads him to new observation and recollections and to a reconsideration of observations already made in order to test the worth of the suggested way out."⁴ The mind seeks truth and symbiosis over deception and diabolism by testing the phenomena encountered, and this mental progression is one of tension. The mind actively binds together thoughts and experiences forming an analysis and leading to a synthesis, which ultimately may become a fixed judgment, a schema, and decision.⁵ Dewey wrote,

The judgment when formed is a decision; it closes, or concludes, the question at issue. This determination not only settles that participant case, but it also helps fix a rule or method for deciding similar matters in the future.. .Through judging, confused data are cleared up, and seemingly incoherent and disconnected facts are brought together. The clearing up is analysis. The bringing together, or unifying, is synthesis.⁶

Dewey’s ideas on cognitive development are aligned with Jean Piaget’s and Lev Vygotsky’s psychological understandings of intelligence as an active, rather than static process. The primary forces of growth for the mind are, then, experiences of cognitive dissonance, tension or problem solving situations. Dewey’s work is also in agreement with the philosophy of Georg Hegel whose thought is summarized by the terms: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. A thesis is an intellectual proposition; and, the antithesis is the negation of the proposition. The synthesis is the recognition of the common truths and premises of each position and thereby forming a new proposition.⁷ For Dewey, the integration of the concrete and the abstract led to more effective and happier (human beings) if both powers are developed in easy and close interaction with each other.’ Therefore, through synthesis and symbiosis, the human person can find contentment and calmness.

Although Dewey’s work is concentrated in the cataphatic reality and human biology, he aims for the infinite end of perfection. Dewey established a problem-centered method for education that directed students to study their experiences and to resolve their problems. This method encouraged reasoning that interweaves the concrete with the abstract, then the abstract with the concrete, with the process continuing endlessly, thus closing the space between them, just as the parables work to create the Kingdom of God. For Dewey, the concrete and the abstract are natural dance partners, "education should advance from things to thought... And if the abstract to which we are to process denotes thought apart from things, the goal is formal and empty, for effective thought always refers, more or less directly, to things."⁹ Furthermore, the integration of the concrete and the abstract (the cataphatic to the apophatit) should be a liberating exercise for the developing person. If one were to go too far into either extreme—concrete or abstract—one would lose one’s original sense of purpose to transform creation. Dewey wrote,

The narrowness of individuals of a strong concrete bent needs to be liberalized. Every opportunity that occurs within practical activities for developing curiosity and susceptibility to intellectual problems should be seized. Violence is not done to natural disposition; rather the latter is broadened. Otherwise, the concrete becomes narrowing and deadening. As, regards to smaller number of those who have taste for abstract, purely intellectual topics, pains should be taken to multiply opportunities for the application of ideas, for translating symbolic truths into terms of everyday social life.¹⁰

Overall, Dewey attempts to bind together the concrete and abstract, the cataphatic and apophatic in the student in an interwoven symbiotic relation that releases him into his most natural condition of union and harmony.

Although much of Dewey’s work is premised in Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, Elliot Eisner’s explains that natural selection can be a life-giving idea when human beings select to relate well within their environment.

Eisner wrote that humans,

major developmental task is to come to terms, through adaption or transformation, with