In his lecture, Tom Poundstone talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan and how several people have interpreted this parable. He points out that this parable has been used in various ways for numerous purposes. He then began his lecture by speaking about a window versus a mirror parable. A window parable is one that tries to reveal to the reader something about the nature of God’s kingdom, while a mirror parable gives the reader a chance to see themselves in one of the characters of the story and reflect about him or herself. Poundstone also claims, that many times there is an aspirational mirror which is holding the goal for where we are suppose to be going and ultimately hopefully seeing ourselves in that mirror. Next, Poundstone explains there are literary forms or means of interpretation called allegory. Then he explains that those who allegorize have read something into the text divergent from what the author meant. St. Augustine, Poundstone explains, took the parable of the Good Samaritan and allegorized each detail in it. Everything in that parable had some sort of significance according to St. Augustine. For example, he…show more content… They then asked if he was always the person who was attacked on the road or if he was only depicted that way in the stained glass? Poundstone responded that initially, when St. Augustine interprets this parable he has Jesus as the Samaritan, he is the one who rescues us. Poundstone declares that this makes sense, because God/Jesus is always looking out and helping us. Jesus is later seen as the person in the ditch and the question is can I recognize him? He then states that it is important to see ourselves in the ditch because if we don’t do so then we don’t recognize that we were once like that, we don’t recognize ourselves in them, but when we recognize ourselves in them then we help because mercy has been shown to
