Identity And Socio Economic Relations In Luke S Gospel

This social-scientific study of the Lukan text in its original context provides an embracing framework for appreciating both the initial and the contemporary significance of its radical social message - a vision of reordered relationships in the 'economy of the kingdom of God.' A fresh approach to Luke with many new points which future Lukan research will have to consider. John Elliott, Professor Emeritus, University of San Francisco

In this commentary, Robert L. Brawley provides comprehensive coverage of issues and concerns related to Luke from the perspective of social identity. He argues that the Gospel of Luke is strongly concerned with the formation of identity from the very start of the text, which aims at the creation of a socially responsible community in continuity with that community's collective past. Brawley establishes a theoretical framework that focuses his interpretation - ranging from the narrative world and sociological issues to postcolonialism and hierarchies of dominance - and uses these perspectives to provide a clear overview of historical and critical issues related to an understanding of Luke. He then provides a thorough outline of and commentary on the text of the Gospel. Brawley's engagement with the text serves as an invaluable resource for scholars, students, clergy, and others interested in their own discoveries of the resources of Luke.

In A Dialogue between Haizi’s Poetry and the Gospel of Luke Xiaoli Yang offers a conversation between the Chinese soul-searching found in Haizi’s (1964–1989) poetry and the gospel of Jesus Christ through Luke’s testimony.

"Luke and the Jewish Other takes up the debated question of the orientation of Luke towards the Jewish people. Building on recent studies in the social history of early Jewish-Christian relations, it offers an analysis of Luke's portrayal of Jewish and Christian identities that challenges the common assumption that the construction of religious identity in antiquity necessarily depended upon antagonistic relations with others. Taking account of the deep and often divisive difference that belief in Jesus made in Luke's community, the author argues that Luke hoped to bring about both a rapprochement with and the conversion of contemporary Jews. Through this account of identity and alterity in the Gospel of Luke, the book cuts across boundaries of biblical studies, history, theology, and social theory, proposing a way forward for the study of Luke's relation to Judaism and of the "parting of the ways" between Jews and Christians in the early Common Era"--

In this title, Kuecker uses social identity theory to examine the interface between the Holy Spirit and ethnicity in Luke-Acts . Kuecker uses an artillery of social identity theory to demonstrate that in Luke 's narrative the Spirit is the central figure in the formation of a new social identity. In his argumenation, Kuecker provides extended exegetical treatments of Luke 1-4 and Acts 1-15. He shows that Luke 1-4 establishes a foundation for Luke's understanding of the relationship between human identity, the Spirit, and the 'other' - especially as it relates to the distribution of in-group benefits beyond group boundaries. With regard to Acts 1-15, Kuecker shows that the Spirit acts whenever human identity is in question in order to transform communities and individuals via the formation of a new social identity. Kuecker argues that Luke depicts this Spirit-formed social identity as a different way of being human in community, relative to the normative identity processes of other groups in his narrative. This transformed identity produces profound expressions of interethnic reconciliation in Luke-Acts expressed through reformed economic practice, impressive intergroup hospitality, and a reoriented use of ethnic language. Formerly the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement, this is a book series that explores the many aspects of New Testament study including historical perspectives, social-scientific and literary theory, and theological, cultural and contextual approaches. The Early Christianity in Context series, a part of JSNTS, examines the birth and development of early Christianity up to the end of the third century CE. The series places Christianity in its social, cultural, political and economic context. European Seminar on Christian Origins and Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus Supplement are also part of JSNTS.

Moving beyond discussions of patriarchy and prescribed “women’s roles” in the Roman world—discussions that have relied too much on elite literary sources, in her view—Katherine Bain explores what inscriptional data from Asia Minor can tell us about the actual socioeconomic status of women in the first and second centuries C.E. Her findings suggest that outside of the prescriptive lenses of the upper classes, women were described, in honorary and funerary inscriptions, in terms that mirrored the socioeconomic status of men, suggesting that women’s leadership in social associations—and by implication in Jewish and Christian congregations as well—was even more frequent than has been imagined.

'Emerging Economics' reveals the economic dimentisons of the theology of the early Jesus movement & explains how this is reflected in the texts of the New Testament & the reception of those texts within the patristic era.