A Theology Of Luke And Acts

Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James

This groundbreaking work by Darrell Bock thoroughly explores the theology of Luke’s gospel and the book of Acts. In his writing, Luke records the story of God working through Jesus to usher in a new era of promise and Spirit-enablement so that the people of God can be God’s people even in the midst of a hostile world. It is a message the church still needs today. Bock both covers major Lukan themes and sets forth the distinctive contribution of Luke-Acts to the New Testament and the canon of Scripture, providing readers with an in-depth and holistic grasp of Lukan theology in the larger context of the Bible. I. Howard Marshall: “A remarkable achievement that should become the first port of call for students in this central area of New Testament Theology.” Craig S. Keener: “Bock’s excellent exploration of Luke’s theological approach and themes meets an important need in Lukan theology.”

A distinguished group of scholars here provides a comprehensive survey of the theology of the early church as it is presented by the author of Acts. The twenty-five articles show the current state of scholarship and the main themes of theology in Acts.

"When and how may Christians first be shown to have used the Gospel of Luke and its companion volume, The Acts of the Apostles? Andrew Gregory offers the first book-length discussion of the reception of Luke and of Acts in the period before Irenaeus. The research project which was the basis of this monograph was originally conceived as a comparison of the pneumatology of Luke-Acts with the pneumatologies presented in Christian literature of the second century. Recent scholarship on Lukan pneumatology is agreed that Luke has a particular interest in the Spirit, but it is divided as to whether his pneumatology is part of a homogenous early Christian understanding or a distinctive presentation that is to be sharply differentiated from that of Matthew and Mark, of John, and of Paul. Noting a lacuna identified by Turner, the author set out to originally ask two questions. First, whether it might be possible to identify in second century pneumatologies any characteristics that New Testament scholars might label as distinctively Lukan. Second, whether such characteristics might be sufficient to indicate not only the influence of Lukan pneumatology but also a conscious appropriation of distinctively Lukan theology by other early Christians. Contents include: Introduction and methodology, Previous research, The evidence of the earliest manuscripts and notices, Do narrative outlines of episodes in the life of Jesus presuppose Luke?, Collections of the sayings of Jesus, Marcion, Justin Martyr, The reception of Luke in the Second Century, The reception of Acts in the Second Century, Early and Ambiguous Evidence, Justin Martyr, Narrative accounts explicitly concerning the Post-resurrection teaching of Jesus and the activity of Apostles and other prominent figures, The reception of Acts in the Period before Irenaeus, The reception of Luke and Acts in the Period before Irenaeus."

This book, the first comprehensive study of persecution in Luke-Acts from a literary and theological perspective, argues that the author uses the theme of persecution in pursuit of his theological agenda. It brings to the surface six theological functions of the persecution theme, which has an important paraenetic and especially apologetic role for Luke's persecuted community. The persecution Luke's readers suffer is evidence that they are legitimate recipients of God's salvific blessings.

Who are the people of God? Luke's purposes in the Acts of the Apostles are to identify the church, to establish the legitimacy of its gospel and to demonstrate that God was an active force in history. He wanted to show that the communities of Jewish and Gentile Christians are the true heirs of God's promises to Israel. He gives the history of the early church from the last decades of the first century as the communities become separated from their Jewish origins, and Paul plays the lead role. Acts offers an apologetic for the mixed mission of the church: to Jews and Gentiles. Luke was an eyewitness to some of what he reports, but his authorship and views have been questioned. This is a theological interpretation of the history of the church within history: Luke is an artist, a narrator rather than a systematic theologian, but writes about the roles of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, and of the church.

What is the meaning of the Holy Spirit's activity in Luke-Acts, and what are its implications for today? Roger Stronstad offers a cogent and thought-provoking study of Luke as a charismatic theologian whose understanding of the Spirit was shaped wholly by his understanding of Jesus and the nature of the early church. Stronstad locates Luke's pneumatology in the historical background of Judaism and views Luke as an independent theologian who makes a unique contribution to the pneumatology of the New Testament. This work challenges traditional Protestants to reexamine the impact of Pentecost and explores the Spirit's role in equipping God's people for the unfinished task of mission. The second edition has been revised and updated throughout and includes a new foreword by Mark Allan Powell.

This work illuminates the tension between divine empowering and the neglected element of the work of the Spirit in contexts of opposition. This lacuna, not addressed in previous Pentecostal scholarship, is at the heart of Mittelstadt's exegesis. Thus, Jesus not only lives and ministers in the power of the Holy Spirit, but also experiences opposition and persecution as a man of the Spirit. Further, the Lukan Jesus not only transfers the Spirit to his disciples, but also anticipates a similar fate for his followers. Finally, Luke forecasts that this divine enablement of the Spirit, also available for future witnesses, brings with it a similar anticipation of the same rejection and opposition as was experienced by Jesus and the disciples. While Pentecostals owe a debt of gratitude for the pioneering work of Pentecostal scholars, this book furthers their efforts by exploring the implications of Spirit-led witness in Luke-Acts.