The Devilish Dialogues: Advocates for Good and Evil Debate the Parables of Jesus

Want a deep look into the human heart? You'll get it here through the shrewd, albeit skewed, observations of a "Devil's Advocate." Want a deeper look into the heart of God with a mercy able to deal with our guilt, a common grace in the world and an uncommon one in the church ? You'll get that here too in the counter-witness of "the Lord's Advocate." Listen in on this fascinating dialogue between them about Jesus' parables, and learn about depths human and divine.

The Devilish Dialogues, a debate between good and evil on the parables of Jesus, was a very intriguing book. Both the Devil's advocate and the Lord's advocate have some very convincing arguments. The book holds your attention to see how these arguments play out. The Devilish Dialogues could be used for a discussion group as they confront these opposing views and look at their own faith beliefs. I recommend this book. Suzanne Winer

Preaching from the pulpit should engage the person in the pew in a conversation. And though the person in the pew may not stand up to offer a verbal comeback to what she has just heard, the preacher in the pulpit can speak on her behalf. Thus, the sermon can become somewhat like a dialogue that raises questions, suggests alternatives, presents parallels, etc. Such a pulpit and pew exchange can be likened to a game of pitch and catch where the action goes back and forth, then forth and back. The Devilish Dialogues is a delightful piece in which this style of sermonizing is printed out in black and white. The dialogues address six familiar stories told by Jesus. The role of "The Devil's Advocate" is taken by Maurice Fetty. "The Lord's Advocate" is Fetty's senior minister, Arthur Rouner. Both are popular Minneapolis ministers and writers. The first devilish dialogue deals with the adventures and the misadventures of The Prodigal Son. On first reading (or on the tenth reading!) the story appears to be simple, direct, focused. The younger son claims his inheritance ahead of time, takes a grand tour to a far country, splurges his easy money, deadends into a charity case. Then the wastrel returns in rags to a patient, indulgent, forgiving, loving father and a petulant brother. But hold on! The Devil's Advocate draws back a fig leaf and the supposed point of the story is not so self-evident after all! Dark notions, conflicting motives, suppressed fears are there, too! The Devil's Advocate yields to the Lord's Advocate who catches the pitch, juggles it a bit, throws it back softly: "What could be more tempting, after all, than to turn piety into patronage, sentimentality into self-interest, soft lighting into softsell -- for hell?" The Devil's Advocate catches the return pitch and with a chuckle dismisses the easy interpretation: "The younger son knew the real story of his sated old man and his pompous older brother -- stuffy, old-line capitalists -- provincial, arid". Aha! But the Lord's Advocate cuts in to defend the simpler version: "I'm for the young man, too! So was his father for the young man, too -- stretched a bridge across the generation gap -- listened to his swinging son without his hair standing on end -- held out his arms in welcome and forgiveness". And so it advances: back and forth, forth and back -- you pitch and I catch, I pitch and you catch. Both the pulpit and the pew are involved in this conversation about serious matters: family, money, indulgence, ambition, rebellion, greed, forgiveness. Stir up all this with "the crutch of religion, nursery bottle of prayer, search for the cosmic Father who will cradle us like children" and the person in the pew will discover that the simple story is not so simple after all! And she will no longer slumber through the sermon time. This format of transforming the sermon into a conversation between the pulpit and the pew is repeated five times in The Devilish Dialogu

As the Advocates for the Devil and for the Lord debate the meaning and relevance of six well-known parables, we the readers are energized by the vigor of the dialogue and by the challenge it presents. The Reverends Fetty and Rouner deftly explain the historical and theological roots of these stories. They bring them vividly to life as they discuss the key issues that we continually face in setting priorities in our modern-day existence. The central question they raise is as profound as it is timeless: who will we choose to be our Master?

"Over many years of ministry I took an unyielding stand against dialogue preaching. Most of the dialogue sermons I read or heard about were a carefully staged exercise in the stating of the obvious. Not so with The Devlish Dialogues prepared by Messrs. Fetty and Rouner. These clerics have too much class and wisdom to play games with the parables of Jesus. Their exchanges in this book deal with real and often disturbing aspects of the teachings of Jesus. One man does not set up the other to establish easy answers to tough questions. I have used this book in my ministry and during my teaching years at Garrett-Evangelical Seminiary. I encouraged students to place this little book on the shelf that contained their major exegetical studies of the parables. In my serveral pastorates I found that lay folk resonated to these pages." Ernest T. Campbell, reviewer