J. Ellsworth Kalas' Parables from the Backside Review

As I've gotten older my Christmas list has drastically changed. Gone are the long lists of video games and gone are the multitude of action figures (although I admit I was still getting some up until last year). Now my Christmas list is usually full of books. What happened? A couple of items on my Christmas list this year was a series of books called Parables from the Back Side by J. Ellsworth Kalas. I have begun to read the series and I have to say they are disappointing good books. What does that mean exactly? Let me explain.

Here is how the back of the book describes the series "Kalas presents new insight into twelve of Jesus' parables by entering them through the 'back side' through the eyes of a minor or unsympathetic character. By approaching the stories in this way, Kalas releases new meaning and clarifies basic teachings." This sounds like a great idea, in fact, me and my friend once had a similar idea. We are tired of the movie industry rehashing old movies and making crappy remakes. So we came up with an idea. If the movie industry insists on remaking movies why not at least have a little twist. Why not make the same movie only from someone else's perspective, preferably a minor character. For example we thought they could remake Star Wars: Return of the Jedi from the perspective of Lando Calrissian. That's what it sounded like J. Ellsworth Kalas was going to do in these books.