An Extraordinary Life

Link to an 8 x 10 .pdf file with graphics (12MB) of "An Extraordinary Life"

In the third chapter of my doctoral dissertation, The Symbolism of Evil: An Application of Paul Ricoeur's Phenomenological Hermeneutic, I develop a "Second Naiveté Christology."

My discussion of "The Words of Jesus" centered on current scholarly research of metaphors and parables. Recent scholarship emphasizes how in Jesus' parables something "extravagant" or "extraordinary" directs the mind to something that transcends the context of ordinary life described in the stories.

In my discussion of "The Works of Jesus" I observe that this same process characterizes the gospels. I wrote, "Just as Jesus' parables employed the extraordinary within the ordinary to open the imagination to something beyond, the gospel writers found something extraordinary within the ordinary life of Jesus that pointed to an interpretation of his life that was beyond the ordinary."

The words to "An Extraordinary Life" were written to demonstrate that the life and works of Jesus could be described as "a parable of God."