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New Views On Luke And Acts
Luke has much to offer; this volume from the Luke-Acts Task Force of the Catholic Biblical Association will provide information, incentive, and insight to the student of Luke. The introductory essays address the relative beginner in biblical studies as well as those who do not specialize in Luke and Acts. The principal reader of this collection, however, is the biblical student and teacher who requires a relatively comprehensive survey of Lukan studies in terms of content and methodology. Both teacher and student will find in these essays an excellent companion to the actual text of Luke and Acts. At the same time, a number of these essays break new ground and offer a challenge to other New Testament scholars. Contributors include Marion L. Soards, Dennis M. Sweetland, Judette Kolasny, Thomas L. Brodie, Marie Eloise Rosenblatt, Robert L. Mowery, Richard J. Cassidy, and Earl Richard.
196 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 1, 2023
Earl Richard (pronounced Ree-shard) was one of my professors when I attended university at Loyola, New Orleans, and this was part of our required reading. Yes, he had edited the compilation and contributed one of the articles, but when it comes to a course in New Testament studies, I can understand the choice. This book was designed for the student and yet, at least for the time, provided new insights for the seasoned academic.
If you read my review for the four canonical Gospels, you can see that I spent a good bit of time comparing Luke in terms of the messages and style to Matthew, Mark, and John. A lot of people do that. But really, to understand Luke's Gospel, one must compare it to Acts of the Apostles, which Luke also wrote as a sequel. Between the two books, we get a detailed account of how Christianity started.
However, there has been controversy over whether Luke was actually an eyewitness to the work of Jesus or a companion to Paul who spread Jesus' teachings after his crucifixion. Luke appears to have based his Gospel off of the earlier Gospel of Matthew as well as another common gospel source, the mysterious "Q" document. His Acts also don't seem to accurately reflect the Pauline letters and was written some decades after Paul's death. So some scholars tended to dismiss Luke-Acts as the beginning of Christian institutionalization rather than the early development of a revolutionary church of salvation.
This collection, however, offers new ways to approach the two books in a way that helps Biblical scholars understand the historical and cultural context of Luke's Hellenistic culture and what he was trying to convey to his community.
I was 19 at the time I was introduced to these ideas, and honestly had never thought of the Bible as anything else other than a collection of anonymous preachings from a primitive time trying to explain why we shouldn't all murder each other and have sex with the neighbor's hot wife. This book was the first time I ever considered that REAL PEOPLE wrote the books of the Bible, many of whom really lived through the time and events discussed, and when you try to understand the author's point of view from their historic and cultural experience, the Bible truly becomes alive and endlessly fascinating!
Somehow this book survived various moves and multiple hurricanes without getting lost, soaked in Mississippi river water, or drawn all over by children. So rereading it years later without the benefit of Dr. Richard's enthusiastic didactic accompaniment made me realize that this book is not the easiest place to start if you are like I was at age 19 and knew nothing about "Q" or the destruction of ancient Jerusalem or the historic Luke or anything else about Biblical scholarship and ancient history. You would need to look some things up as you go along, but that's not a bad way to learn. But if you are already interested in religious studies, this is a great collection that is easy to read even if you are not an expert.
Copies are still easily available online, so check it out if you are so inclined.
If you read my review for the four canonical Gospels, you can see that I spent a good bit of time comparing Luke in terms of the messages and style to Matthew, Mark, and John. A lot of people do that. But really, to understand Luke's Gospel, one must compare it to Acts of the Apostles, which Luke also wrote as a sequel. Between the two books, we get a detailed account of how Christianity started.
However, there has been controversy over whether Luke was actually an eyewitness to the work of Jesus or a companion to Paul who spread Jesus' teachings after his crucifixion. Luke appears to have based his Gospel off of the earlier Gospel of Matthew as well as another common gospel source, the mysterious "Q" document. His Acts also don't seem to accurately reflect the Pauline letters and was written some decades after Paul's death. So some scholars tended to dismiss Luke-Acts as the beginning of Christian institutionalization rather than the early development of a revolutionary church of salvation.
This collection, however, offers new ways to approach the two books in a way that helps Biblical scholars understand the historical and cultural context of Luke's Hellenistic culture and what he was trying to convey to his community.
I was 19 at the time I was introduced to these ideas, and honestly had never thought of the Bible as anything else other than a collection of anonymous preachings from a primitive time trying to explain why we shouldn't all murder each other and have sex with the neighbor's hot wife. This book was the first time I ever considered that REAL PEOPLE wrote the books of the Bible, many of whom really lived through the time and events discussed, and when you try to understand the author's point of view from their historic and cultural experience, the Bible truly becomes alive and endlessly fascinating!
Somehow this book survived various moves and multiple hurricanes without getting lost, soaked in Mississippi river water, or drawn all over by children. So rereading it years later without the benefit of Dr. Richard's enthusiastic didactic accompaniment made me realize that this book is not the easiest place to start if you are like I was at age 19 and knew nothing about "Q" or the destruction of ancient Jerusalem or the historic Luke or anything else about Biblical scholarship and ancient history. You would need to look some things up as you go along, but that's not a bad way to learn. But if you are already interested in religious studies, this is a great collection that is easy to read even if you are not an expert.
Copies are still easily available online, so check it out if you are so inclined.
May 7, 2020
Keep in mind the word 'new' is relative to the time of printing (30 years ago), so necessarily some ideas have advanced in scholarship, some of found consensus, some are being challenged or nuanced in different ways. Important to note as well this is a series of short works by various authors looking at particular issues and texts within the Luke-Acts books. This book is not a commentary (any reader would do well to start with a good, basic commentary on the two books), but does help expound on and give further depth to a reader's understanding of the text. Many of these concepts are useful in opening up Luke's theology and how Luke understands the Jesus event to be a part of human history.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews