People of the Spirit: Exploring Luke's View of the Church

by Graham H. Twelftree

Today's church suffers a crisis of confidence as a result of pluralism, globalism, and postmodernity. Seasoned New Testament scholar Graham Twelftree's historical exploration of Luke's view of the church contributes to the current conversation about what the church is and should do. Twelftree draws together various strands in Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles to show Luke's profound influence on the church and explain Luke's thought regarding the church's origin, nature, purpose, and mission. A final chapter proposes Lukan conclusions to such debated questions as the relationship between church and salvation; the relationship between the Spirit, water baptism, and glossolalia in Christian initiation; the question of infant baptism; the character of worship; the interplay of Scripture and experience; church structure and leadership; and the nature of Christian mission.

Genres: Biblical Studies

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Graham H. Twelftree (PhD, University of Nottingham) is the Charles L. Holman Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and the director of the PhD program in the School of Divinity at Regent University, Virginia. In addition to many scholarly articles and reviews, he is the author of a number of books, including In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism among Early Christians and People of the Spirit: Exploring Luke's View of the Church.

Reviews

[Jacob Hudgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very thorough treatment of the first half or so of Acts. I found much of his reasoning unconvincing. He says things like “Luke probably means x” and the next sentence says “because we have asserted he means x, every other view is incorrect.”

Twelftree claims that “whereas we preach the gospel to each other on Sundays and seek to bring social justice to the world, Luke maintained that the Church should preach the gospel to the world and apply social justice within the Church.” This is an interesting and rare take.

He struggles with what to do about water baptism, admitting that Luke would say it’s essential, but hedging by saying it was a community acceptance issue (what about the eunuch??).

I was a little surprised that such a thorough study did not produce clearer, better supported conclusions.