9. Shakespeare’s King Henry the Fourth

A play by Shakespeare’s being part of the English curriculum each year when I was in high school impressed on me that his plays are literary classics. This is confirmed by Encyclopedia Britannica’s describing him as “widely regarded as the greatest writer of all time.” It goes on to say, “No writer’s living reputation can seriously compare with that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and read more often in more countries than ever before,” and to devote a full twenty pages to its article on him.

But Shakespeare’s plays works on government and politics? Here is how Mortimer J. Adler and Peter Wolff justify their including his two plays on King Henry the Fourth in their The Great Ideas Program collection of works on political theory and government:

“Shakespeare’s historical plays are not merely dramatic re-enactments of actual events. They reveal what motivates and what happens to men in the struggle for power. Shakespeare probably never read a line of Machiavelli, but there were Machiavellian currents and Machiavellian figures in the Elizabethan court. He himself created many such figures, full images of flesh and spirit, with an anguished self-awareness.” (Mortimer J. Adler and Peter Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government in The Great Ideas Program, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1959, page 117)

Adler and Wolff survey the historical context in which the two plays were set, consider two problems running through the plays which are important in political philosophy: the question of the legitimacy of a ruler and the question of how to educate a ruler, and discuss other three questions about the plays. Here I’ll just summarize what they say about the two problems.

Legitimacy of a Ruler

Henry IV’s grandfather, Edward III, reigned from 1327-1377. He was succeeded by his son, Richard II, who ruled from 1377-1399. Richard was a minor when he became king, and the time of his minority was one of popular discontent and political strife. After he declared himself of age in 1389, a period of constitutional rule and of general peace and prosperity followed. However in 1397 he assumed the role of an absolute ruler, crushing the opposition of parliament and the barons. In 1399, while Richard was suppressing a rebellion in Ireland, Henry of Lancaster, a cousin of his who had been exiled by him, organized a plot to overthrow him and landed in England, where many of the barons rallied to his cause. When Richard returned from Ireland, he found himself without supporters and was forced to abdicate. Parliament was summoned, accepted Richard’s abdication, and declared Henry to be king, as Henry IV, in 1399.

According to hereditary right Henry’s claim to the throne was not as good as that of some other claimants‒the House of March, who were descended from the third son of Edward III (Lionel, Duke of Clarence) whereas Henry was descended from the Edward’s fourth son (John of Gaunt, Dike of Lancaster). Thus the declaration of Henry as king set a precedent for the principle that Parliament is superior to the king. However at that time England was not yet a constitutional monarch and so Shakespeare’s Henry IV felt that his title to the crown was weak, telling his son:

“God knows, my son,
By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways
I met this crown; and I myself know well
How troublesome it sat upon my head.”
(Second Part of King Henry IV in Great Books of the Western World, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952, volume 26, page 496)

Adler and Wolff discuss how Hobbes, whose views I considered in my last post, would have viewed Henry’s concern. Although Hobbes would have opposed Henry’s gaining the throne by rebellion against the legitimate ruler (Richard II), when Henry had succeeded in making himself king (and thus becoming the legitimate ruler) Hobbes would have upheld him against those who rebelled against him. “Hobbes, in other words, is always on the side of the ruling party and condemns all rebellion‒always mindful of the fact that a state of war is a state of misery” (Adler and Wolff, page 124). The rebels, on the other hand, viewed Henry as still an illegitimate ruler and thus thought that it was acceptable to try to usurp his power. What do you think?

How to Educate a Prince for His Royal Office

The qualities of a prince or ruler and how they should be developed are discussed in various works‒Plato’s The Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, Plutarch’s The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Tacitus’s The Annals, and Machiavelli’s The Prince‒that we have already considered in working through The Development of Political Theory and Government. Although the problem of princely education has become less important in modern times, a similar and related replaces it: in a government by the many or by all, it is necessary to educate everyone so that each citizen will be able to assume the responsibilities of political action.

Nobody seems to be in charge of the education of Prince Hal (Henry IV’s son, Henry Monmouth) for his royal office, unless we call Sir John Falstaff (his fat, boastful, and cowardly companion) his tutor, and the King expresses concern over what he is learning. In the very first scene of Part I, the King expresses his discontent with his son and his wish that he would be more like Harry Hotspur (Henry Percy, the son of Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland). And Act III, Scene 2, of Part I, consists mainly of a dialogue between the King and the Prince in which the King exhorts his son to change his ways and be more like the King in his youth or like Hotspur, who threatens to take the crown from Henry IV. However, although the Prince vindicates himself to a certain extent by beating Hotspur in combat at Shrewsbury near the end of Part I, he continues to behave just as before.

Why does the Prince seem to ignore his father’s advice and public opinion? A partial answer is given by him himself in a soliloquy at the end of the first scene in which Falstaff appears:

“So, when this loose behaviour I throw off…
My reformation, glittering o’er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which has no foil to set it odd.
I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time when men think least I will.”
(First Part of King Henry IV in Great Books of the Western World, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952, volume 26, page 437)

After he becomes king, he fulfils this promise to himself and rejects Falstaff when the latter approaches him in a crowd of people and seeks his attention. In a separate question Adler and Wolff discuss whether Prince Hal’s earlier seeking the companionship of Falstaff in order to seem the nobler when he reformed was a worthy purpose. What do you think?

How to Read a Book

While reorganizing my books recently, I reread Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren’s How to Read a Book (New York: Simon Schuster, 1972) and, the author of its original version’s (Adler in 1940) being a co-author of The Great Ideas Program, decided to recommend it here.

The back cover of How to Read a Book describes its contents thus:

“You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them‒from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. You are told how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author’s message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science.
“Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list [of works in Great Books of the Western World and Gateway to the Great Books] and supply reading tests [on works included in Great Books of the Western World] whereby you can measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension and speed.”

Here I’ll just distinguish between the four levels of reading identified in How to Read a Book and summarize the steps the authors recommend taking in the third level of reading, analytical reading. I won’t consider approaches to the different kinds of reading matter identified above or duplicate the reading list and reading tests.

Adler and Van Doren call the first level of reading Elementary Reading because it is ordinarily learned in elementary school. It could also be called rudimentary reading, basic reading, or initial reading. It includes at least these four stages: reading readiness (acquired in pre-school and kindergarten experiences), learning to read very simple materials (typically acquired in first grade), a stage characterized by rapid progress in vocabulary building and increasing skill in “unlocking” the meaning of unfamiliar words through context skills (typically acquired by the end of fourth grade), and mature reading characterized by refinement and enhancement of the skills previously acquired (typically acquired by the end of elementary or junior high school). The question asked of the reader at this level of reading is “What does the sentence or paragraph say?” How to Read a Book devotes Chapter 3 to this level of reading.

Adler and Van Doren call the second level of reading Inspectional Reading. It could also be called skimming or pre-reading because it begins with systematically skimming or pre-reading the book, but it also includes a superficial reading of the book, a reading through it without stopping to look up or ponder what the reader doesn’t understand right away. Its aim is to get the most out of a book within a given time, usually a relatively short time and always too short a time to get everything out of a book that can be gotten. Questions typically asked at this level are “What is the book about?” and “What are its parts?” How to Read a Book devotes Chapter 4 to this level of reading.

Before proceeding to consideration of the next level of reading, Adler and Van Doren give some tips on becoming a demanding reader. They identify four questions a reader must ask about any book: What is the book about as a whole? What is being said in detail, and how? Is the book true, in whole or in part? and What of it? They suggest several ways a reader can mark a book to make it his or her own, such as underlining major points and important or forceful statements. They describe three kinds of the notes a reader will make in and about books‒structural in inspectional reading, conceptual in analytical reading, and dialetical in synoptical reading. And they encourage readers to form the habit of reading because “one learns to do by doing” (How to Read a Book, page 53). These tips constitute Chapter 5 of How to Read a Book.

Adler and Van Doren call the third level of reading Analytical Reading. They devote two or three chapters to each of the three stages of analytical reading identified by them, and they conclude their consideration of the level by summarizing the rules for analytical reading that they presented in those chapters:

The First Stage…Rules for Finding Out What a Book Is About
1. Classify the book according to kind and subject matter. [Chapter 6]
2. Select what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity. [Chapter 7]
3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole. [Chapter 7]
4. Define the problem or problems the author has tried to solve. [Chapter 7]
The Second Stage…Rules for Interpreting a Book’s Contents
5. Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words. [Chapter 8]
6. Grasp the author’s leading propositions b dealing with his most important sentences. [Chapter 9]
7. Know the author’s arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences. [Chapter 9]
8. Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and of the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve. [Chapter 9]
The Third Stage…Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge
9. Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book. [Chapter 10]
10. Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously. [Chapter 10]
11. Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgment you make. [Chapter 11]
12-15. Show wherein the author is uninformed, misinformed, or illogical and wherein his analysis or account is incomplete. [Chapter 12]

The above rules concern reading a book in itself without reference to other books. However Adler and Van Doren recognize that sometimes reference to other books is necessary for full understanding of a book. Thus in Chapter 13 of How to Read a Book they discuss these aids to reading: relevant experiences, other books (especially the so-called great books), commentaries and abstracts, and reference books such as dictionaries and encyclopedias. They recommend “that outside help should be sought whenever a book remains unintelligible to you, either in whole or in part, after you have done your best to read it according to the rules of intrinsic reading” (How to Read a Book, page 169).

Adler and Van Doren identify the fourth level of reading as Synoptical Reading. Although it could also be called comparative reading because it involves reading many books and placing them in relation to each other and to a subject about which they all revolve, it involves more than mere comparison of texts, its also enabling the reader to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books. Before doing a project of synoptical reading, the reader must know that more than one book is relevant to a particular question and know which books should be read, thus creating a bibliography. Then the reader should inspect (skim or pre-read) all the books in the bibliography, giving him or her a clear enough idea of his or subject to make analytical reading of some of the books worthwhile and allowing him or her to cut down the bibliography to a more manageable size. Adler and Van Doren identify and discuss five steps in synoptical reading: finding the relevant passages, bringing the authors to terms, get the questions clear, define the issues, and analyze the discussion. How to Read a Book devotes Chapter 20 to this level of reading.

Adler and Van Doren conclude the body of How to Read a Book by considering what good books can do for us.

“A good book [rewards] you for trying to read it. The best books reward you most. The reward, of course, is of two kinds. First, there is the improvement in your reading skill that occurs when you successfully tackle a good, difficult work. Second‒and this in the long run is much more important‒a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable‒books that provide nothing but information can produce that result. But wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life.” (How to Read a Good Book, page 341)

That’s one of my reasons for rereading Great Books of the Western World, or at least those parts of it discussed in The Great Ideas Program. The other is to provide me with a foundation for sharing my love of good books with my family and friends through Bob’s Corner.

8. Hobbes’s Leviathan

“Thomas Hobbes, whose long life actively covered most of the 17th century, was one of the greatest of British political philosophers…. His importance lies in his having insisted that the first requirement of political and moral institutions is that they should provide the citizens with security. Thus, Hobbes’s starting point was the individual, his rights and need for security–from which he passed to the social contract by which a sovereign is invested with absolute authority.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974, volume 8, page 970)

In the eighth reading of their The Development of Political Theory and Government (volume 2 of The Great Ideas Program, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1959), Mortimer J. Adler and Peter Wolff consider the introduction to and chapters 13-21 of Hobbes’s Leviathan. After introducing Hobbes, they discuss his notion of the state of nature which he characterizes as a state of war, his affirmation that people can escape that state by following natural law to form a commonwealth or Leviathan, and the rights which he attributes to the sovereign and to his subjects in a commonwealth. They then compare Hobbes’s thought with the thought of some other writers considered in The Great Ideas Program: with Aristotle on whether the state is natural or conventional, with Locke on how they view the state of nature, with Aquinas on how they conceive natural law, and with Plato on how they picture justice. Here I’ll sketch Hobbes’s life and summarize Adler and Wolff’s presentation of his political theory. However, because of my limited knowledge of the thought of the other writers, I won’t try to compare Hobbes’s thought with theirs.

Hobbes was born in 1588 and lived through one of the most turbulent periods in English history‒from Elizabeth I to Charles II, including the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell. Feeling that his defence of the monarchy made it dangerous for him to be in England during the struggle between the king and Parliament, he spent eleven years in self-imposed exile (1640-51), mostly in Paris. However although Cromwell was still in power when he returned to England, he was unharmed. After the restoration of the monarchy he was protected by Charles II, whom he had tutored in mathematics while in Paris, but had difficulty in getting his work published, being suspected of teaching atheism in Leviathan. Thus many of his writings weren’t made public until after his death at ninety-one in 1679.

Leviathan was published in 1651. The political theory which Hobbes expressed in it is built around the notion of a state of nature, a primitive condition in which there was no king, no law, and no civil society. It is a state of war―“during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war”―caused by competition, diffidence, and glory. “The first makes men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third for reputation.” To be in a state of war, it is not necessary to be fighting all the time; it is enough that people are ready to fight. “For the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto during all time there is no assurance. All other time is peace.” Adler and Wolff observe that this description fits what we call a “cold war” and that “Hobbes clearly thought that sovereign states in the seventeenth century were as much in a condition of ‘cold war’ as the United States and Russia are in the twentieth” (Adler and Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government, page 103; the other quotes in this paragraph are from Leviathan in Great Books of the Western World, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952, volume 23, page 85).

“It takes very little imagination to see that men’s condition in such a state of war…must be miserable. Few, however, have described this state as eloquently as Hobbes did: ‘In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. (p. 85c).’ Should men, then, quit the state of nature or war? Hobbes’s answer is an emphatic Yes. His affirmation is drawn from the natural law.” (Adler and Wolff, pages 103-04)

Hobbes defines a law of nature as “a precept, or general rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same, and to omit that by which he thinketh it may be best preserved.” He identifies the first such law of nature as “that every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war” and the second as “that man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down [his] right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself.” (The quotes in this paragraph are from Leviathan, pages 86-87.)

However, Hobbes argues, it isn’t enough for us to be willing to give up our natural rights. Others must be willing to do so too. But agreements to do so “are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.” Thus “something else [is] required, besides covenant, to make [men’s] agreement constant and lasting; which is a common power to keep them in awe and to direct their actions to the common benefit.” This power can come about only if people “confer all their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will.” This person or assembly “is called a COMMONWEALTH” and “he that carryeth this person [or assembly] is called sovereign, and said to have sovereign power; and every one besides, his subject.” (The quotes in this paragraph are from Leviathan, pages 99-101.)

Hobbes devotes a whole chapter of Leviathan, Chapter XVIII, to identifying the rights of the sovereign. Adler and Wolff summarize them thus:
(1) The subjects cannot, under any conditions, cast off the sovereign and institute a new one.
(2) The sovereign has made no covenants with the subjects; rather they have made covenants among themselves. The sovereign cannot, therefore, ever be said to have broken the covenant with his subjects, and they can never be free from their subjection.
(3) When the majority of men has declared someone to be sovereign, the minority must go along.
(4) The sovereign can commit no injury against his subjects.
(5) Therefore, the sovereign can never be justly punished.
(6) The sovereign has the right of censorship over opinions and books.
(7) The sovereign’s will is the sole source of civil law.
(8) The sovereign has the judicial power in the state.
(9) The sovereign has the right of making wear and peace.
(10) [The sovereign has the right] of choosing his officers, counselors, ministers, etc., in both peace and war.
(11) The sovereign has the right of punishing and rewarding his subjects.
(12) [The sovereign] has the right of awarding honors and titles.
(Adler and Wolff, page 107)

Adler and Wolff sum up the above list by saying that for Hobbes “sovereignty is absolute” (Adler and Wolff, page 107). They then consider whether subjects retain any rights and conclude they do retain some rights, rights which they cannot give away, described thus by Hobbes: “As first a man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force to take away his life, because he cannot be understood to aim thereby at any good to himself. The same may be said of wounds, and chains, and imprisonment” (Leviathan, page 87). Thus, as Adler and Wolff point out, Hobbes acknowledges only the first of the three inalienable rights mentioned in the American Declaration of Independence‒life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. “The right to life or of self-preservation is inalienable for him. As for the other two…liberty is quite alienable for Hobbes, being in fact totally alienated from the subjects by the social contract and given to the sovereign. Hobbes is silent on any right to a ‘pursuit of happiness.’ (Adler and Wolff, page 108)

Where does Leviathan get its title? Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines “leviathan” as “anything huge or very powerful.” The only place in which I saw the word used in the part of Leviathan discussed in The Development of Political Theory and Government is where Hobbes tells how people enter into a covenant to give up their natural rights. Here is what he says: “This done, the multitude so united in one person is called a COMMONWEALTH…. This is the generation of that great LEVIATHAN, or rather, to speak more reverently, of that mortal God, our peace and defence. For by this authority, given him by every particular man in the Commonwealth, he hath the use of so much power and strength conferred on him that, by the terror thereof, he is enabled to form the wills of them all, to peace at home, and mutual aid against their enemies abroad” (Leviathan, page 100). (Although Hobbes refers here to “that great LEVIATHAN as “he” and as having his authority “given” to him, elsewhere he clarifies that it can be a single man or an assembly of men (see above in the paragraph beginning, “However, Hobbes argues”) and can attain its power by force or by voluntary agreement.) “That great LEVIATHAN” described by Hobbes certainly fits the dictionary definition of “leviathan.”

The Parable of the Lost (Prodigal) Son

Last evening the Life group which my wife, Leonora, and I host studied Jesus’ parable of the lost or prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) guided by The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups’s questionnaire for beginning groups. I used the questionnaire and other material in The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups by permission of Serendipity House, Littleton, Colorado 80160.

LK 15:11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, `Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
LK 15:13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
LK 15:17 “When he came to his senses, he said, `How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
LK 15:21 “The son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. ‘
LK 15:22 “But the father said to his servants, `Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
LK 15:25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 `Your brother has come,’ he replied, `and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
LK 15:28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, `Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
LK 15:31 ” `My son,’ the father said, `you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'” (NIV; all Biblical quotations are in the NIV)

The questionnaire, which I’d distributed the previous week, was divided into two parts, Looking into the Scriptures and My Own Story. Between sharing our answers to the two sections, we discussed two of the DIG questions asked about the parable in The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups.

Looking into the Scriptures
This section contained four multiple-choice (1-4) and four Yes-No (5-8) questions.
1. Why do you think the prodigal son decided to leave home? – We divided between “to get away from his father’s values,” “to try to make it on his own,” and “to get away from his older brother.”
2. What was it that caused the prodigal son to come to his senses? – Our most popular choice was “hunger pangs.”
3. When the prodigal son returned home, what was his father’s attitude? – Our unanimous choice was “welcome home, son, I love you.”
4. When the older brother (who had been good) heard music and dancing, what was his attitude? – Our most popular choice was “it’s unfair.”
5. Do you think the father was wise to give his son his inheritance when he knew his son would probably blow it? – We divided between “Yes” and “No.”
6. If the father had a pretty good idea where his son had gone, do you think he should have gone after him? – We divided between “Yes” and “No.”
7. Do you think it was wise for the father to “kill the fatted calf” and throw a party when his son came home? – Our unanimous choice was “Yes” but we discussed what was unwise about his doing so.
8. Do you think that father split his inheritance a second time so that the prodigal son would have some spending money? – We divided between “I hope so” and “I hope not.”

DIG Questions
5. What’s Jesus’ point with this parable? What does the story teach about sin, repentance, and God’s love? Could you make a case for retitling this parable “The Waiting Father” or “The Elder Brother”? How so?
After our discussion of the question, I shared Darrell L. Bock’s and Joel B. Green’s comments on the parable’s title. “This parable is often called ‘The Prodigal Son,’ but it is really about different reactions to the prodigal. The key reaction is that of the father, who is excited to receive his son back. Thus a better name for the parable is ‘The Forgiving Father.’ A sub-theme is the reaction of the older brother, so that one can subtitle the parable with the addendum: ‘and the Begrudging Brother.’” (Bock, The NIV Application Commentary: Luke, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1996, page 412) and “Whose parable is it? The traditional answer, that it concerns a father with two sons, has much to commend it. Most importantly, the parable begins by naming ‘a man who had two sons,’ and goes on to underscore his conciliatory responses to the insulting behavior of both sons. Three telling observations suggest that this is not the case, however…. Finally, the larger co-text of this well-crafted parable in ch. 15 highlights the critical motif of ‘celebration,’ the joyous repast of what was lost (cf. Vv. 6, 9, 23-24, 27)…. Hence, as important as the father is to the parable, center stage belongs to the younger son” (Green, The Gospel of Luke, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1997, page 578; )
6. In summary, how [does this parable] answer the Pharisees’ objection in verse 2? What does Jesus want to teach the Pharisees in verses 25-31? In light of the context (v. 2), why does Jesus leave the story open-ended as to how the older brother responded to his father’s plea?
After our discussion of the question, I shared Alfred Plummer’s closing comment on the parable: “Not the least skilful touch in this exquisite parable is that it ends here. We are not told whether the elder brother at last went in and rejoiced with the rest. And we are not told how the younger one behave afterwards. Both these events were still in the future and both agents were left free. On purpose of the parable was to induce the Pharisees to come in and claim their share of the Father’s affection and of the heavenly joy. Another was to prove to the outcasts and sinners with what generous love they had been welcomed.” (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to S. Luke, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1922, page 379)

My Own Story
This section contained four multiple-choice questions.
1. By temperament and experience, whom do you identify with in this story? – Our most popular choice was “the father.”
2. If you had to compare your spiritual journey to the prodigal’s journey, where are you now? – Our unanimous choice was “enjoying the fattened calf and the party.”
3. When it comes to spiritual things, what is your response to God’s “party”? – We split between “party lover: I’m ready, let’s party” and “wallflower: I’m there, but I can’t dance.”
4. What is the lesson for you in this parable? – We split between “you’ve got to let your children go, even though you know they will probably blow it,” “God’s love has no strings,” and “love overcomes mistakes.”