Book excerpt: Do you not understand this parable? is a question Jesus posed to his disciples (Mark 4:13). Just as the first disciples often did not understand Jesus ' many parables, so it is for listeners and readers nearly two thousand years later. In Parables of the Kingdom, Mary Ann Getty-Sullivan helps readers to hear and see and understand the parables of Jesus. She offers a general introduction to the use of parables in the life and ministry of Jesus and the early church. In addition, Getty-Sullivan helps readers learn to interpret parables, to enter into what the parables can reveal about Jesus and his audience, about the evangelists and their communities, and about how we are to understand the Kingdom of God today. Parables of the Kingdom helps us hear and see Jesus ' parables with new eyes and renewed hearts 'thereby allowing the parables to transform our lives and help us respond with new conviction to the gospel's power in our world. Mary Ann Getty-Sullivan holds an S.T.D. from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. She has been teaching New Testament courses in colleges and seminaries for more than thirty years and has recently retired from teaching full time to devote more time to writing and lecturing. Mary Ann has written several commentaries on the Letters of Saint Paul. Her recent books include Women in the New Testament published by Liturgical Press.