Robert Farrar Capon

Combining the glorification of life with a celebration of food, the author presents his favorite recipes, information on cooking and feasting, and comments on beauty, love, and grace.

A Culinary Reflection

The Supper of the Lamb

Looks at why individuals are not understanding the connection between Jesus Christ and their spiritual salvation

The Mystery of Christ-- and why We Don't Get it

Capon

The Man Who Met God in a Bar is a retelling of the Gospel story set in Cleveland. Originally published in 1990, Robert Farrar Capon tells the story of Marvin Goodman, businessman who finds himself an airport bar where he encounters a charismatic young chef named Jerry-who also claims to be God.

The Gospel According to Marvin

The Man Who Met God in a Bar

Parables of Grace

This volume makes available three of Capon's sought-after early works: An Offering of Uncles, The Third Peacock, and Hunting the Divine Fox. Each book offers a refreshingly different take on key theological issues--the priesthood of humankind, the problem of God and evil, and the language of theology.

One Man's Love Affair with Theology : Three Books

The Romance of the Word

Here in one volume is Robert Farrar Capon's widely praised trilogy on Jesus' parables The Parables of the Kingdom, The Parables of Grace, and The Parables of Judgment. These studies offer a fresh, adventurous look at all of Jesus' parables, treated according to their major themes. With the same authorial flair and daring insight that have earned him a wide readership, Capon admirably bridges the gap between the biblical world and our own, making clear both the original meaning of the parables and their continuing relevance today.

Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus

Kingdom, Grace, Judgment

Picture a college town in the mid- 1970s. An English professor who has become an expert in extramarital dalliances is smitten by one of his graduate students. They meet for lunch around noon, and before three they make declarations of love. Is it possible that their subsequent affair could ultimately teach us something about true forgiveness and the radical meaning of grace? Only Robert Farrar Capon would have the audacity -- and the authorial skill -- to fashion such a tale. It has taken well over a decade for Between Noon and Three to appear in this, its original form. First published under two separate titles with significant parts excised and an entire section recast, the real Between Noon and Three is actually a trilogy of intertwined tales, each of which exhibits Capon's persistent insistence on the outrageous nature of grace. The original manuscript is here printed in full, including a new introduction by Capon on the work's unusual history. Reading sometimes like a provocative novel, sometimes like a theological wrangle between writer and reader, Between Noon and Three defies categorization. Capon sums up the book this way: "Those who read it as a novel are doomed to disappointment: at every turn, the story line entangles itself in theological ropework. On the other hand, those who prefer their theology straight up -- no ice, no olives, no twists -- will recoil at the plethora of oddments I serve with it, not to mention my penchant for mixing purple prose with low comedy. I always work two sides of the street at once, running from store to store, picking up what strikes my fancy. If you can stand the switching back and forth, it makes for a diverting experience." Diverting, disconcerting, engaging, enlightening -- it's pure Capon.

Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace

Between Noon and Three

The creation story stands as one of the most famous and familiar in Scripture. But, says best-selling author Robert Farrar Capon, most of us misconstrue it. The reason? We have fallen into the habit of reading Genesis the way we read all of Scripture - as a manual of religious instructions. To break this (bad) habit, Capon here offers a whimsical yet wonderfully fruitful approach - watching the Bible as a historical movie whose director is God. Though Capon does have fun with this concept, he's very serious about its liberating effects. "When you watch a movie," he says, "you never ask questions about whether the events depicted actually happened. Instead, you accept the history the director shows you on the screen." And, as Capon points out, we typically suspend judgment of a film until we've seen all of it, letting later scenes inform and enrich earlier ones. That, he says, is exactly how we need to see Genesis - as just the beginning of the whole movie of Scripture. Using this novel approach in "Genesis, the Movie," Capon develops a commentary of theological scope and depth on the first three chapters of Genesis. He gives every verse as it appears in the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate, as well as in the KJV, RSV, and NRSV versions of the Bible. Making extensive use of Augustine's commentary on Genesis in his "Confessions" and "De Genesi ad Litteram," Capon also shows the interpretive freedom with which the church's fathers and mothers approached Scripture. This book is as much Capon the charming writer-teacher as it is Capon the scholar, characterized as it is by the conversational, entertaining style for which Capon is so well known. Enriched by Capon's signature wit, imaginative wisdom, and broad-ranging engagement of saints, poets, and religious thinkers across the centuries, "Genesis, the Movie" presents a remarkable new look at Scripture that will delight and challenge its many readers.

The Movie

Genesis

In this delightfully twisting, engaging, multi-genre narrative. Robert Farrar Capon explores three areas of life that concern us all -- health, money, and love -- pokes fun of the religions we make of them, and trumpets the radical gospel of grace, the only alternative that can free us to be truly happy.

And Why We Don't Enjoy Them

Health, Money, and Love. . .

The first volume of Capon's trilogy on Jesus' parables, The Parables of the Kingdom covers the short, almost one-sentence parables that occur in the Gospels before the feeding of the five thousand. Offering a fresh look at these parables in the light of their entire gospel and biblical context, Capon elucidates Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God.

The Parables of the Kingdom

Preachers, are you preaching authentically and effectively to your congregation? Those who sit in the pews, are you truly expecting and receiving genuine Gospel preaching?In The Foolishness of Preaching Robert Farrar Capon challenges preachers to preach faithfully and effectively to their congregations and challenges congregants to expect and demand genuine preaching. "A passion for the Passion" is the necessary ingredient for authentic preaching, declares Capon. A preacher must believe passionately in the Good News of salvation in Christ. Preachers often experience stumbling blocks preventing them from authentic preaching. In Part One, "The Bedrock of Preaching," Capon discusses these stumbling blocks and ways to overcome them. In Part Two, "The Practice of Preaching," Capon offers practical advice and insight into the mechanics of effective preaching. The Foolishness of Preaching is not simply a nuts-and-bolts exercise in preaching, but a lively and challenging lesson that never loses touch with the center of preaching and belief-the astonishing grace of Jesus Christ.

Robert Farrar Capon

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