Jesus the Radical: The Parables and Modern Morality connects the lessons of six parables of the New Testament with philosophical issues structured around contemporary morality and the art of leading a good human life. In this manner, Raymond Angelo Belliotti highlights just how radical was the historical Jesus' moral message and how enormous a challenge he raised to the conventional wisdom of his time. More important, this book demonstrates how deeply opposed is Jesus' moral message to the dominant moral understandings of our time. Although our conventional morality is generally profoundly influenced by Judeo-Christianity, several of Jesus' revolutionary insights have been marginalized. By imagining how our world would appear if those insights were highlighted, we can perceive more clearly the people we are and the people we might become. Belliotti's analysis of the parables will be of keen interest to professional philosophers, theologians, and educated lay people interested in the connections between religion and philosophy.

Raymond Angelo Belliotti is State University of New York Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and author of twenty-six books, including Values, Virtues, and Vices, Italian Style: Caesar, Dante, Machiavelli, and Garibaldi and Heroism and Wisdom, Italian Style: From Roman Imperialists to Sicilian Magistrates, both published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.