A Surprising God: Bible Stories for Children and Adults
James V. Parker, Ph.D., has been learning about the surprising God from children, who blurt out perceptive questions as they hear Bible stories for the first time, and from their parents, as they heard them in their own childhoods. After taking degrees in religious studies at the Gregorian University in Rome and the University of Leuven in Belgium, Parker became a pastor and a teacher of high school students, graduate students, and adult learners. Since marrying Kathleen Culligan, designer and editor of this book, he has shared the stories with his stepchildren and stepgrandchildren. Parker has published a study guide for adult Bible groups, Food for the Journey (Ave Maria Press, 1986). He is also the co-author of The Animal Research War (Macmillan, 2007) and the author of  Animal Minds, Animal Souls, and Animal Rights (University Press of America, 2010), books that grew out of his work at a research center of the National Institutes of Health. Parker lives in Portland, Oregon.