by Amanda Brobst-Renaud (Author)

From among the many parables in Luke, Amanda Brobst-Renaud chooses three, which she names 'parables of reckless liberality': the Prodigal Son, the Shrewd Steward, and the Rich Man and Lazarus. Picking up on the supposed slur that Jesus 'welcomes sinners and dines with them', Luke encourages his audience in these parables from chaps. 15-16 in a practice of giving excessively to the wrong people at inappropriate times (flouting Aristotle's advice on liberality in the Nicomachean Ethics).