Evangelicals Now
<< February 1997 >>

Praying the Parables

Embracing God's World
By Joyce Huggett
Hodder and Stoughton
198 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 340 65620 4

This 'Special Collection of New and Classic Prayers' collated by Joyce Huggett includes hymns, meditations, well-known prayers, new prayers and some pure Scripture.
I found it a little disconcerting that some items are really poems rather than prayers, and some are expressed as though written by God. Sparingly employed, this is no doubt a legitimate literary device, but there is so much of it - one prayer is even introduced as a 'prophetic word' - that I began to feel as though too much was being claimed.
The majority of the prayers are by Joyce Huggett herself and a narrow circle of friends, so the collection lacks the variety it might have had, if it had been drawn from wider circle.
However, there are some very personal prayers of commitment from a number of people from different countries that are deeply moving. The collection also includes some helpful prayers for those living in difficult situations overseas, or for folk who have been involved in car accidents.
Any collection like this will necessarily stem from a particular outlook and will be most appreciated by those who share that outlook.

Praying the Parables
By Joyce Huggett
Eagle. 116 pages. £5.99
ISBN 0 86347 40 4

Joyce Huggett introduces this book as a popularisation of some of the ideas of Kenneth Bailey, a scholar who has done much work on the parables.
The main thrust is that the purpose of Jesus' parables is to elicit a heart response in his hearers. By analysing two of the best known parables, Joyce Huggett tries to show how to respond rightly to them in prayer and action. She underlines the importance of placing the parable in its historical and cultural context and rejects 'the customary Western way of processing data' in favour of 'the Middle Eastern approach of opening the heart to the truth'. By asking ourselves the right sorts of questions, we should trigger prayers of the heart. She encourages meditation on the parables, the use of prayer journals, the pouring out of emotions that surface, wordless prayer and praying the parables by living them.
Since many of the parables are open-ended - for instance, we do not know how the lawyer responded to the parable of the Good Samaritan - Joyce Huggett says it is vital we 'finish Jesus' drama for ourselves'. We should ask ourselves the question: 'How am I responding?.
Joyce Huggett has some good insights, particularly into the parable of the Good Samaritan, and a strong, healthy emphasis on the gospel of grace. However, her assertion that the parable has only one purpose - to elicit a response of the heart, not to inform the mind, set alarm bells ringing in my mind. She also states that in metaphorical theology, the metaphor does not illustrate a theological point - the metaphor is the theology. Her emphasis on listening to the emotions also left me a little uncomfortable: I know I can't trust mine!

Kathy Peat,
Oak Hill