Prodigal Christ

This is a beautifully written, elegantly argued, and thoroughly persuasive book. Anyone who wants to learn more about Barth, Julian, Jesus, or the parable of the prodigal son will enjoy reading Kendall Cox’s impressive new study.

~Adam Neder, Bruner-Welch Professor of Theology, Whitworth University

With this book Kendall Cox achieves the near impossible--casting new light on both Julian of Norwich and Karl Barth and doing so with an elegance and depth of reading that does honor to both, and to the text of scripture which enfolds them.

~Janet Soskice, William K. Warren Distinguished Research Professor of Catholic Theology, Duke Divinity School

Many lament the division between biblical studies and systematic theology. This learned and original book does something about it. With keen literary and theological analysis, Cox’s creative pairing of Julian of Norwich and Karl Barth reimagines narrative theology as parabolic. Prodigal Christ is well worth reading, and not only by those interested in these figures or parable studies.

~Eric Gregory, Professor of Religion, Princeton University

In Prodigal Christ, a robust work of academic theology, Kendall Cox puts this parable into conversation with two seemingly unlikely inter-locutors, Karl Barth and Julian of Norwich. She examines it not only as a parable of salvation but also as a parable of atonement and election and therefore a parable of the divine life and a portrait of the prodigal Jesus who is excessively and liberally giving of himself.

~Jason Micheli, The Christian Century

"…as an exposition of parabolic theology at its most significant and striking, this is an impressive resource, of value to scholars of parables, Barth and Julian of Norwich in equal measure."

~Alison Jack, Modern Believing