For forty years I worked at trying to understand the ancient world, and even now in my rustic retirement I tend to read the parables as stories set in the Mediterranean two thousand years ago rather than as theological documents. Sometimes this makes them clearer, but at other times it throws up new problems: this, I suspect, may be no bad thing. Jesus’ parables are not always straightforward (the disciples found them puzzling: Luke 8.9) and often seem to challenge conventional ways of thinking; for example the story of the unjust steward (or dishonest manager, as the modern versions put it) in Luke 16.1-13, which I’m not sure that anyone has explained away.