The Candleberry Tales

The Candleberry Tales is a collection of humorous and often fanciful modern-day parables told by a group of pastors heading to a Georgia mountain retreat center. In the tales readers will meet a mouse who is a theologian, a sect that communicates with outsiders by quoting the King James Bible, a brave young girl who challenges her town's leaders, and other memorable characters. These tales illustrate important themes from the Gospels and will challenge various aspects of the modern practice of Christianity using humor instead of polemical critiques. The men, women, children, and mice in The Candleberry Tales are family members, employees, clergy, churchgoers, and academics--they engage their faith not in isolation but among the people they encounter. Likewise, Gospel parables are never about "lone rangers." They are about messy encounters between people. And in the case of The Candleberry Tales, encounters can be very messy, indeed. Whether readers are new to faith, a longtime pilgrim, or have become wholly disengaged, this book can offer a fresh look at the Gospels and make audiences laugh at the same time.