This course explores the parables of Jesus a) within their settings in the Gospels, b) as the vehicles for Jesus’ evocation and depiction of the empire of God, and 3) as they might be used in the life of the church today. We will focus especially on the possibilities and problems for preaching and teaching posed especially by those parables that occur in the Revised Common Lectionary, most of which come from Matthew and Luke. This course is open to all students, but may be adapted to meet the standards of a Greek language exegetical distribution elective.