<i>The Candleberry Tales</i> is a collection of humorous and often fanciful modern-day parables told by a group of pastors heading to a Georgia mountain retreat center. In the tales readers will meet a mouse who is a theologian a sect that communicates with outsiders by quoting the King James Bible a brave young girl who challenges her town&rsquo;s leaders and other memorable characters. These tales illustrate important themes from the Gospels and will challenge various aspects of the modern practice of Christianity using humor instead of polemical critiques. <br />The men women children and mice in <i>The Candleberry Tales </i>are family members employees clergy churchgoers and academics&mdash;they engage their faith not in isolation but among the people they encounter. Likewise Gospel parables are never about &ldquo;lone rangers.&rdquo; They are about messy encounters between people. And in the case of <i>The Candleberry Tales</i> encounters can be very messy indeed.<br />Whether readers are new to faith a longtime pilgrim or have become wholly disengaged this book can offer a fresh look at the Gospels and make audiences laugh at the same time.