Forsaking the Family: Jesus, Childhood and the Search for Freedom - Tapa blanda

Jesus, it appears, never considered himself "one of the family". His family values reflect little of what passes for "home truths" in contemporary life. Rather the Holy family as glimpsed in the gospels involves truancy, conflict, deception, a rude disowning and the spontaneous creation of a new "family". It seems that, for Jesus, the family was not so much an institution to be protected as an adventure to be lived. Through exploring four key Bible passages, Simon Parke aims to help us come to an understanding of freedom of relationship ? relating which neither colludes in negativity or manipulation, nor sulks or lashes out ? but is at once glad to connect and knowingly separate. For in the end, our true family is not those caught up in the same little biological tangle as ourselves, but the world.

The Revd Simon Parke was one of the original writers of Spitting Image, has been a regular on ?Pause for Thought? with Terry Wogan, and since leaving the Church of England, has written a weekly, highly stimulating column for the Church Times. He is the author of the trilogy of novels Desert Depths (Scripture Union, 1995), Desert Ascent (Hodder, 1997) and Desert Child (Hodder, 1998), which all received outstanding reviews, and of three little ?thought? books for Azure, One-Minute Mystic (1999), The Learning of Love (2000) and Origins (2001).