“I’ve had some friends say, ‘You’re cheeky. You say you know how Mary speaks; and now, you say you’ve found the lost parables of Jesus?’ Well, I’m a cheeky guy.”
Carl Winderl, Ph.D., professor emeritus of writing at PLNU, is doubtlessly given many descriptors by his colleagues and former students — faithful, spiritual, gentle in spirit, inspiring. He was praised as “America’s preeminent Marian poet” by Olivet Nazarene University former President John C. Bowling. But when you look at the vivacity, boldness, and unshackled creativity flowing throughout Winderl’s poetry that inhabits the voice of Jesus’ mother, you can see why his friends and colleagues still call him “cheeky,” even after decades of celebrated writing.
“Mary’s the persona; I’m just listening in stream-of-consciousness,” Winderl explained. “The form of the poems reflect my dependence upon the King James Version of the Bible: the cadence, the rhythm, the vocabulary. It sounds right to me.”
He writes his Marian poetry intentionally and prayerfully. Winderl freely acknowledges that it’s bold of him to adopt her point of view, but it comes from a deep connection to her voice as she is depicted throughout scripture — especially the unique lens she brings when we learn about Christ.
His new book, The Lost Parables of Jesus, was published in November 2024. It is a collection of poems that imagines new parables that Jesus might have told. It sticks to the fundamental truths and themes of the parables that have been recorded in Scripture, but imagines new stories, metaphors, and situations that might have happened in Jesus’ years of ministry. It is also a sequel to his 2021 book, The Gospel According to Mary.
This book — and Winderl’s Marian poetry — appears to have key ties to his journey through academia. The Lost Parables is dedicated to Larry Finger, Ph.D., a key professorial mentor in Winderl’s life. Finger was Winderl’s undergraduate literature professor at Trevecca Nazarene University, and finished his career at Point Loma College, where Winderl would later teach (as PLNU). The dedication reads, “To Larry Finger, who taught so much more than literature. Like Jesus, he taught students.”
“I’m here because of Larry Finger,” Winderl said, with emotion. “He loved me when I was at my most unlovable. He was my inspiration to be a teacher.”
Winderl wrote his first Marian poem as a graduate student at the University of Chicago. “An Immaculate Conception” was inspired by the catholic tradition of Mary being immaculately conceived by the Holy Spirit, just like Jesus. He explained this poem is a great example of how he holds both Catholic and Protestant traditions in harmony.
“I grew up in both the Catholic and the Protestant church,” he said. “I was a hybrid theologian.”
Winderl began teaching at PLNU in 2002, and discovered that teaching poetry and writing was his chief ministry. His wife, Ronda Winderl Ph.D., also taught communication and theater at PLNU. Among their numerous contributions was PLNU’s London Semester Program, in which the Winderls taught students studying abroad in England.
“The good news about being a poet [is that] I can write what I want. If they don’t want to publish it, I don’t care. Serious writers do it because they can’t not write.”
Winderl released his first book, Mary Speaks to her Son, in 2005, and continued writing throughout his years of teaching, especially Marian poetry. During his second-to-last sabbatical, for example, he took the time to re-write every psalm from Mary’s voice. When asked why he tackled that monumental project, Winderl answered simply, “Why not?”
“The good news about being a poet [is that] I can write what I want,” Winderl said. “If they don’t want to publish it, I don’t care. Serious writers do it because they can’t not write.”
After 15 years of teaching at PLNU, Winderl retired in 2017. Then, he and Ronda traveled to be missionaries in Croatia. Following Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, the Winderls served at the Ukrainian border in 2022 in Przemysl, Poland, to provide aid for refugees.
The Gospel According to Mary was completed in 2021 among his mission work, and was intended to serve as “a retelling of Jesus’ life through Mary’s eyes.”
“Mary knows Jesus like no one else,” Winderl said. “All the significant events in Jesus’ life — Mary was there.”
The book begins with Mary’s perspective of the crucifixion, which Winderl imagines was “the worst day of Mary’s life,” and then backtracks to describe his birth, coming of age and ministry.
“It’s her perspective… Who better to tell us what it was like to see her Son on the cross?”
This book was well-received, and was made possible in part by the encouragement of some leading Mary scholars, including Father Johann Roten, retired director of the International Marian Research Institute and the Marian Library at the University of Dayton, and Father Bertrand Buby, honored Marian scholar and professor for the institute.
“That library has more Marian stuff than even the Vatican,” he said.
Roten had advised him not to find a catholic publisher, but rather a secular one. Winderl recalled Roten’s encouragement: “We have lots of catholic poets, writing about Mary, writing about Jesus. But we don’t have any protestants. And you’re giving Mary a voice… long after you are dead, people will be reading your Marian poetry.”
They continued to encourage Winderl as he crafted his latest book, The Lost Parables of Jesus. Winderl spoke on the significance and power of Jesus’ parables, and wanted these new parables to reflect how much love and wisdom could be conveyed through them.
“The parable was a teaching method for everyone who had ears to hear,” Winderl observed. “That was how [Jesus] taught, how He communicated to everybody. He didn’t just tell the disciples, He was modeling to the disciples how to reach [others]. You didn’t have to be literate to hear the stories.”
The cover of the book perfectly embodies Jesus’ gentle storytelling. The statue is entitled The Teacher, created by Scott Stearman, the same sculptor who was commissioned to create The Calling, which rests in front of the Ryan Library on PLNU’s main campus. Bronson Pate photographed the statue for the cover art.
As with The Gospel According to Mary, each poem in The Lost Parables is narrated by Jesus’ mother. However, the feminine point of view was a highlight of several poems even beyond the narrative voice. In one of Winderl’s most striking poems of the collection, “Not all women,” Jesus tells the parable of the “wastrel daughter,” which many readers will recognize as a retelling of the prodigal son. Rather than simply rewriting the gender, however, the poem explores all the nuances of a young woman losing her privilege and tragically becoming the victim of exploitation and slavery. In the end the father buys her back and redeems her with open arms.
“I wanted to make it similar but different, [following] the narrative structure,” Winderl described. “The daughter goes down, down, down because she has no power… for me, the Father becomes much more than an earthly father, and it’s so much more amazing when she’s forgiven for everything.”
Within this, Winderl strove to emphasize what he believes is the true heart of the original parable: the wasteful child is not simply the “sinner” of the story, but a victim of the fragile world, and a recipient of others’ judgment — even after the father has fully forgiven them. Jesus’ gentle and compassionate treatment of women, such as in the biblical scenes of Jesus talking to the woman at the well and forgiving the woman caught in adultery, is presented within these new stories in beautiful detail.
That’s perhaps one of the biggest strengths of the book: each parable adds clarity and new perspectives on the principles Jesus taught — especially those stories for which we’ve become so accustomed that some meaning has been lost. And Mary’s voice adds even more of a fresh view on His teachings. With reverence and confidence in his connection to God and Scripture, Winderl dares to offer these “lost parables” that were lost to history. Even if it is a little cheeky.
“The parable was a teaching method for everyone who had ears to hear. That was how [Jesus] taught, how He communicated to everybody.”
Winderl’s new book The Lost Parables of Jesus is available now.
