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World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age
For almost 300 years, the dominant trend in New Testament interpretation has been to read the Acts of the Apostles as a document that argues for the political possibility of harmonious co-existence between 'Rome' and the early Christian movement. Kavin Rowe argues that the time is long overdue for a sophisticated, critically constructive reappraisal.
"A brilliant piece of work by a young scholar of considerable promise."
--First Things
"This well-written, well-argued book is a must read for New Testament scholars."
-- Review of Biblical Literature
"This sophisticated argument offers a comprehensive vision of Acts and deserves a wide readership."
-- Religious Studies Review
"There is so much happening in these pages that a slow and careful read will provoke sustained thoughts on a variety of subjects of ecclesial interest ranging from Christianity and culture to issues of tolerance and political theology."
-- Themelios
"A brilliant piece of work by a young scholar of considerable promise."
--First Things
"This well-written, well-argued book is a must read for New Testament scholars."
-- Review of Biblical Literature
"This sophisticated argument offers a comprehensive vision of Acts and deserves a wide readership."
-- Religious Studies Review
"There is so much happening in these pages that a slow and careful read will provoke sustained thoughts on a variety of subjects of ecclesial interest ranging from Christianity and culture to issues of tolerance and political theology."
-- Themelios
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 21, 2021
Simply outstanding. I’m not sure the book of Acts and what Luke is up to in it can be fully understood apart from this book and the reading of Acts it suggests. Not only this, but it is the most helpful book in connecting Acts to the witness of the present church that I’ve ever read
March 10, 2020
The early Christian movement exploded into the Mediterranean world, challenging the prevailing culture yet remaining nonviolent in its missionary endeavors. Is Christianity an exclusivist movement, chopping at the root of the tree laid by the ancient world? Or is it a non-threatening group, with no attempted coup of Caesar’s throne? World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age by Kavin Rowe is an attempt to answer both of these questions with a “both and.” A sophisticated work; World Upside Down demands the reader’s full attention. The book is interdisciplinary in scope, incorporating aspects of political theory, narrative criticism, and constructive theology. Rowe’s method is that of close-exegesis, building an argument on the cumulative exegesis of various passages in the book of Acts.
After giving an outline of the project in chapter one, chapter two examines the culturally destabilizing power of the Christian message. Here Rowe examines the early Christians’ encounter with the gods and their images. His wide-ranging familiarity with the ancient world is on display here (and throughout the work), noting the ancient expectation of the gods’ appearance in human form, which sheds light on the reaction to Paul and Barnabas’s ministry in Lystra in Acts 14. On the radical break between the Christian movement and the ancient world, he writes, “The termination of magical practice and the burning of the books that make such practice possible thus visibly mark and publicly proclaim the end of a way of life. The life that supports and is supported by magic has gone up in flames” (43). Seen Christianly, pagans, along with their practices and their deities stand on the creaturely side of the Creator/Creation divide and are therefore inherently idolatrous in nature.
Chapter three examines the complex relationship between the Christian message and its confrontation with Roman political system. Rowe gives detailed attention to seemingly contradictory passages such as, ‘These men…advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice’ as well as ‘I found he had done nothing deserving death,’ arguing that both passages must be read together. The resurrection of Jesus creates a new way of seeing, a ‘light’ which the Gentiles lack. Rowe does an excellent job applying narrative criticism to the book of Acts. One noteworthy example is his careful examination of the two (very different) uses of χριστιανός in Acts 11:26 and 26:28.
Chapter four examines Jesus as Lord, and what this lived reality means for Christians. Rowe’s comments on God and Jesus—building off of his earlier work, Early Narrative Christology—are superb. Jesus does not challenge Caesar’s claim to be kyrios, according to Rowe, but rather, since Jesus is utterly superior to Caesar—sharing in the identity of God himself—Caesar is the usurper of what can only belong to God alone (112). However, the Lordship that Jesus offers is a peace-bringing, resurrection-shaped Lordship, one that is to shape and define the mission and character of Christian communities.
Chapter five is more practically oriented, focusing on the true life that followers of Jesus are to exhibit. On this Rowe writes, “Thus the truth claim about Jesus’s Lordship does not lead in Acts to a narrative blueprint for the need to coerce others for their own good but to a form of mission that rejects violence as a way to ground peaceful community and instead witnesses to the Lord’s life of rejection and crucifixion by living it in publicly perceivable communities derisively called Christians (173). Rowe is to be praised for his holistic, integrative approach, critical as he is of our modern tidy compartmentalization of the supposed realms of “religion”, “politics” “economics” and the like. Such groupings tend to sever what was held together in the ancient world (and in ours)—namely, all of life.
Adding to the sophisticated tone of the work—yet making it more difficult for the average reader—is the large quantity of untranslated Greek, Latin, and German throughout the book. While this reviewer is not in much of a position to evaluate, Professor Rowe appears to have a strong grasp of all three languages, particularly Greek. Translations would have helped to communicate Rowe’s argument to a broader audience. The book is also to be lauded for its breadth of research (the 88 pages of endnotes are as long as half of the body of the work). Rowe clearly exhibits a deep familiarity with the history of interpretation of the book of Acts.
While not wanting to underestimate Luke’s role in compiling, organizing, and crafting his work, and also not wanting to misunderstand Professor Rowe’s intention, this reader is uncomfortable with what sounds of Luke’s creation of some of the character speech in Acts. Rowe seems to allow Luke considerable liberty in the crafting of Acts. He speaks of “Luke’s Paul” (e.g. pg. 70), and later writes, “Luke is known for his care in character speech—and Festus is no exception” (105). Given Luke’s “careful investigation” based on eyewitness accounts (cf. Lk. 1:1–4), one would expect a little more certainly as to Luke’s character reports in Acts.
World Upside Down is a work of ontological realignment, restoring the Lord Jesus to his proper place, and clearly outlining the culture shaping pressures of the Christian message on the ancient world, and on ours. Given Rowe’s earlier works on Luke, one eagerly suspects a commentary on Luke-Acts may be in the works. Professors Rowe has done a terrific job of outlining the complex, but persistent witness of the early Christians. He paints a clear picture of the Lord Jesus, the one who unleashed a movement that continues to turn the world upside down.
After giving an outline of the project in chapter one, chapter two examines the culturally destabilizing power of the Christian message. Here Rowe examines the early Christians’ encounter with the gods and their images. His wide-ranging familiarity with the ancient world is on display here (and throughout the work), noting the ancient expectation of the gods’ appearance in human form, which sheds light on the reaction to Paul and Barnabas’s ministry in Lystra in Acts 14. On the radical break between the Christian movement and the ancient world, he writes, “The termination of magical practice and the burning of the books that make such practice possible thus visibly mark and publicly proclaim the end of a way of life. The life that supports and is supported by magic has gone up in flames” (43). Seen Christianly, pagans, along with their practices and their deities stand on the creaturely side of the Creator/Creation divide and are therefore inherently idolatrous in nature.
Chapter three examines the complex relationship between the Christian message and its confrontation with Roman political system. Rowe gives detailed attention to seemingly contradictory passages such as, ‘These men…advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice’ as well as ‘I found he had done nothing deserving death,’ arguing that both passages must be read together. The resurrection of Jesus creates a new way of seeing, a ‘light’ which the Gentiles lack. Rowe does an excellent job applying narrative criticism to the book of Acts. One noteworthy example is his careful examination of the two (very different) uses of χριστιανός in Acts 11:26 and 26:28.
Chapter four examines Jesus as Lord, and what this lived reality means for Christians. Rowe’s comments on God and Jesus—building off of his earlier work, Early Narrative Christology—are superb. Jesus does not challenge Caesar’s claim to be kyrios, according to Rowe, but rather, since Jesus is utterly superior to Caesar—sharing in the identity of God himself—Caesar is the usurper of what can only belong to God alone (112). However, the Lordship that Jesus offers is a peace-bringing, resurrection-shaped Lordship, one that is to shape and define the mission and character of Christian communities.
Chapter five is more practically oriented, focusing on the true life that followers of Jesus are to exhibit. On this Rowe writes, “Thus the truth claim about Jesus’s Lordship does not lead in Acts to a narrative blueprint for the need to coerce others for their own good but to a form of mission that rejects violence as a way to ground peaceful community and instead witnesses to the Lord’s life of rejection and crucifixion by living it in publicly perceivable communities derisively called Christians (173). Rowe is to be praised for his holistic, integrative approach, critical as he is of our modern tidy compartmentalization of the supposed realms of “religion”, “politics” “economics” and the like. Such groupings tend to sever what was held together in the ancient world (and in ours)—namely, all of life.
Adding to the sophisticated tone of the work—yet making it more difficult for the average reader—is the large quantity of untranslated Greek, Latin, and German throughout the book. While this reviewer is not in much of a position to evaluate, Professor Rowe appears to have a strong grasp of all three languages, particularly Greek. Translations would have helped to communicate Rowe’s argument to a broader audience. The book is also to be lauded for its breadth of research (the 88 pages of endnotes are as long as half of the body of the work). Rowe clearly exhibits a deep familiarity with the history of interpretation of the book of Acts.
While not wanting to underestimate Luke’s role in compiling, organizing, and crafting his work, and also not wanting to misunderstand Professor Rowe’s intention, this reader is uncomfortable with what sounds of Luke’s creation of some of the character speech in Acts. Rowe seems to allow Luke considerable liberty in the crafting of Acts. He speaks of “Luke’s Paul” (e.g. pg. 70), and later writes, “Luke is known for his care in character speech—and Festus is no exception” (105). Given Luke’s “careful investigation” based on eyewitness accounts (cf. Lk. 1:1–4), one would expect a little more certainly as to Luke’s character reports in Acts.
World Upside Down is a work of ontological realignment, restoring the Lord Jesus to his proper place, and clearly outlining the culture shaping pressures of the Christian message on the ancient world, and on ours. Given Rowe’s earlier works on Luke, one eagerly suspects a commentary on Luke-Acts may be in the works. Professors Rowe has done a terrific job of outlining the complex, but persistent witness of the early Christians. He paints a clear picture of the Lord Jesus, the one who unleashed a movement that continues to turn the world upside down.
May 20, 2023
2023 reads: 13
Rating: 4.5 stars
C. Kavin Rowe is professor of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School. His brief yet invigorating World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age is fundamentally about the connection between knowing and living (3). More to the point: the picture of Acts presents a coherent vision—the apocalypse of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus as Lord of all—that calls for an alternate way of life. In narrating this vision, Acts records the “formation of a new culture.” (140) Put differently, ecclesiology is public Christology. (173) Rowe advances his thesis by establishing two tensions: the first, cultural “collision”, speaks to the confrontation of the creator God and his apocalypse with the rulers of this world. Now that Jesus is “πάντων κύριος” (Acts 10:36), all other authorities are relativized. Second, is the exoneration of the Christian movement in its Graeco-Roman context. This movement arising out of God’s apocalypse establishes a new culture, yes, but it is no coup; sedition is not on the cards. In fact, Paul is deemed dikaios—that is, righteous, cleared of treason. The tension established between “collision” and the rejection of statecraft is then elucidated by a certain epistemology and its reciprocating praxis: ecclesiology. Rowe attempts to “reread an ancient text with historical knowledge” to critically construct a reappraisal of Acts' ecclesiological vision. (4) This ecclesiological vision is the impetus for Rowe’s concluding discussion on polytheism, and contemporary politics.
Rowe’s World Upside Down is exemplary in every facet of its inquiry. It’s strength lies in its interdisciplinary endeavor. Blending exegesis, scholarship on the New Testament and Graeco-Roman antiquity, as well as political theory, narrative criticism, and constructive theology (7) Rowe avoids modern pitfalls of endless specialization and cordoned off corners of knowledge. This integrating approach fundamentally challenges the notion that Luke provides a “simple apologia that articulates Christianity's harmlessness vis-à-vis Rome.” (4) Yet it also evades excesses in the opposite direction. The result is a well-integrated vision that ties theology, history, culture, politics, and sociology into one glorious array. It is hard to overstate my appreciation for this volume. It has given me a picture of how to go about biblical studies that is at once sensitive to history and theology, while also proving to be relevant for contemporary readership.
Where World Upside Down excites me is in its narrative approach, care for Israel’s story, and its ecclesiological burden. In the modern western world, the corporate realities of the people of God are largely disparate and trivial. World Upside Down challenges readers and awakens them to the consequences of theological claims: the church is the very explication of God’s identity in Christ’s death and resurrection. It is vital that we retrieve a theological understanding of God’s ecclesia, as well as its relationship vis-à-vis the empires of this world. If we do not sense the tension apparent in Acts (collision and the charge of sedition), then we need to ask ourselves in what ways we are faithfully explicating the apocalypse of God, in deed and thought. Or have we perhaps fallen prey to syncretism? By appropriating narrative structures, the story of Israel, and the ecclesiological vision of Acts, our theological reflection and witness would be all the better. It is in fact on this very point that I believe Rowe’s contribution invites one criticism: the vision of the ecclesia is somewhat stilted and underdeveloped. Acts tells much of how and what the early church did, but Rowe simply points to the church’s relationship to the state, idols, mission, and to its community living. Of course, this suffices to demonstrate his thesis, but perhaps further inquiries can be sought after, especially concerning the sacraments, leadership, and preaching. A final thought relates to Rowe’s discussion on Acts 17. In what way can, or should, intertextuality and pastiche function as critique of culture for the purpose of conversion? Put differently, is it the job of Christians to engage cultural and politico-religious signs with God’s apocalypse for Christian witness today? If (according to Rowe) Paul transports Aratus’s Phaenomena from its original framework into the story of Israel and Jesus (40), how and in what ways are we to interact with contemporary cultural signs for Christian witness? The possibilities are numerous.
[Read for the Gospels & Acts Doctoral Seminar with Dr Pennington, Summer 2023]
Rating: 4.5 stars
C. Kavin Rowe is professor of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School. His brief yet invigorating World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age is fundamentally about the connection between knowing and living (3). More to the point: the picture of Acts presents a coherent vision—the apocalypse of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus as Lord of all—that calls for an alternate way of life. In narrating this vision, Acts records the “formation of a new culture.” (140) Put differently, ecclesiology is public Christology. (173) Rowe advances his thesis by establishing two tensions: the first, cultural “collision”, speaks to the confrontation of the creator God and his apocalypse with the rulers of this world. Now that Jesus is “πάντων κύριος” (Acts 10:36), all other authorities are relativized. Second, is the exoneration of the Christian movement in its Graeco-Roman context. This movement arising out of God’s apocalypse establishes a new culture, yes, but it is no coup; sedition is not on the cards. In fact, Paul is deemed dikaios—that is, righteous, cleared of treason. The tension established between “collision” and the rejection of statecraft is then elucidated by a certain epistemology and its reciprocating praxis: ecclesiology. Rowe attempts to “reread an ancient text with historical knowledge” to critically construct a reappraisal of Acts' ecclesiological vision. (4) This ecclesiological vision is the impetus for Rowe’s concluding discussion on polytheism, and contemporary politics.
Rowe’s World Upside Down is exemplary in every facet of its inquiry. It’s strength lies in its interdisciplinary endeavor. Blending exegesis, scholarship on the New Testament and Graeco-Roman antiquity, as well as political theory, narrative criticism, and constructive theology (7) Rowe avoids modern pitfalls of endless specialization and cordoned off corners of knowledge. This integrating approach fundamentally challenges the notion that Luke provides a “simple apologia that articulates Christianity's harmlessness vis-à-vis Rome.” (4) Yet it also evades excesses in the opposite direction. The result is a well-integrated vision that ties theology, history, culture, politics, and sociology into one glorious array. It is hard to overstate my appreciation for this volume. It has given me a picture of how to go about biblical studies that is at once sensitive to history and theology, while also proving to be relevant for contemporary readership.
Where World Upside Down excites me is in its narrative approach, care for Israel’s story, and its ecclesiological burden. In the modern western world, the corporate realities of the people of God are largely disparate and trivial. World Upside Down challenges readers and awakens them to the consequences of theological claims: the church is the very explication of God’s identity in Christ’s death and resurrection. It is vital that we retrieve a theological understanding of God’s ecclesia, as well as its relationship vis-à-vis the empires of this world. If we do not sense the tension apparent in Acts (collision and the charge of sedition), then we need to ask ourselves in what ways we are faithfully explicating the apocalypse of God, in deed and thought. Or have we perhaps fallen prey to syncretism? By appropriating narrative structures, the story of Israel, and the ecclesiological vision of Acts, our theological reflection and witness would be all the better. It is in fact on this very point that I believe Rowe’s contribution invites one criticism: the vision of the ecclesia is somewhat stilted and underdeveloped. Acts tells much of how and what the early church did, but Rowe simply points to the church’s relationship to the state, idols, mission, and to its community living. Of course, this suffices to demonstrate his thesis, but perhaps further inquiries can be sought after, especially concerning the sacraments, leadership, and preaching. A final thought relates to Rowe’s discussion on Acts 17. In what way can, or should, intertextuality and pastiche function as critique of culture for the purpose of conversion? Put differently, is it the job of Christians to engage cultural and politico-religious signs with God’s apocalypse for Christian witness today? If (according to Rowe) Paul transports Aratus’s Phaenomena from its original framework into the story of Israel and Jesus (40), how and in what ways are we to interact with contemporary cultural signs for Christian witness? The possibilities are numerous.
[Read for the Gospels & Acts Doctoral Seminar with Dr Pennington, Summer 2023]
July 13, 2025
Yeah, Rowe cooked here. I will return over and over to this volume, and the final chapter was some of the most seismically compelling theological literature I’ve ever read. I can’t recommend it enough!
“To read the text rightly is already to have accepted Acts’ claims… therefore, if we are to think along with Acts about the pressing issues that face us today, we must think within the particular way of life it claims is necessary to know the truth of its kerygma. That this way of life is not self-grounded but derives from the apocalypse of God in the Lord of all just is the ‘kerygmatic intention and claim’ of the book of Acts. That it could be proven is of course ridiculous. That it could be true is not.”
“To read the text rightly is already to have accepted Acts’ claims… therefore, if we are to think along with Acts about the pressing issues that face us today, we must think within the particular way of life it claims is necessary to know the truth of its kerygma. That this way of life is not self-grounded but derives from the apocalypse of God in the Lord of all just is the ‘kerygmatic intention and claim’ of the book of Acts. That it could be proven is of course ridiculous. That it could be true is not.”
May 14, 2023
In World Upside Down, C. Kavin Rowe offers a vision for understanding the narrated events in the book of Acts in light of their Greco-Roman setting. In particular, he focuses on passages that illustrate the interactions between the Christian community and its surrounding pagan culture. He argues that when it comes to Luke’s vision of the relationship between Christians and the pagan world they inhabited, Acts presents two consistent patterns that stand in tension with each other: on the one hand, Christianity completely upturns the beliefs, practices and systems of pagan life; on the other hand, Christians are exonerated from any charges of political sedition/treason. In his concluding chapters, Rowe provides a way of synthesizing these two themes and drawing implications for Christian thought and practice today.
I learned a lot about Greco-Roman culture through Rowe’s book, and many of his insights have greatly helped my understanding of the political and legal dynamics of several of the events in Acts, particularly in the various interactions between Jewish groups and Roman authorities. His framing of Luke’s “dialectic” between cultural upheaval and political sedition was new to me and pointed out patterns in Acts that I had never noticed before. His concluding thoughts on the nature of tolerance, modern infatuations with polytheism, and the claims that Acts makes on its readers were all immensely helpful.
Rowe’s book is an utterly fascinating study of Acts that delves deep into the historical-cultural backgrounds without losing sight of the text itself. It provided me with a model of how to balance a concern for biblical backgrounds with a commitment to letting the text speak for itself. One area I would have liked to have seen fleshed out more is the application of Acts to one’s political theology, especially in light of modern debates over things like “Christian nationalism” and “culture wars.” Would it be fair to say that, in Rowe’s view, the early Christians were not “Christian nationalists” but were still “culture warriors”? What does life under the lordship of Christ look like for those who are in positions of governmental authority? How should these principles be applied by Christians who do possess political power? Rowe's book was published over a decade ago, so I can't help but wonder if he would have addressed these issues had he written it in our present moment.
I learned a lot about Greco-Roman culture through Rowe’s book, and many of his insights have greatly helped my understanding of the political and legal dynamics of several of the events in Acts, particularly in the various interactions between Jewish groups and Roman authorities. His framing of Luke’s “dialectic” between cultural upheaval and political sedition was new to me and pointed out patterns in Acts that I had never noticed before. His concluding thoughts on the nature of tolerance, modern infatuations with polytheism, and the claims that Acts makes on its readers were all immensely helpful.
Rowe’s book is an utterly fascinating study of Acts that delves deep into the historical-cultural backgrounds without losing sight of the text itself. It provided me with a model of how to balance a concern for biblical backgrounds with a commitment to letting the text speak for itself. One area I would have liked to have seen fleshed out more is the application of Acts to one’s political theology, especially in light of modern debates over things like “Christian nationalism” and “culture wars.” Would it be fair to say that, in Rowe’s view, the early Christians were not “Christian nationalists” but were still “culture warriors”? What does life under the lordship of Christ look like for those who are in positions of governmental authority? How should these principles be applied by Christians who do possess political power? Rowe's book was published over a decade ago, so I can't help but wonder if he would have addressed these issues had he written it in our present moment.
February 26, 2022
Careful exegesis of Acts to determine how it is and in what way the world is turned upside down through the gospel. Are Christians seditious? Or do they have no qualms with Rome? Etc. Rowe rejects the either/or option that people read into Acts that Christians are either (1) seditious or (2) they have no quarrel with Rome and culture (and also rejects the notion that Luke is trying to assure Rome in the narrative on Rome’s terms that Christianity is safe) for a third that accepts all the evidence: yes there must be a break with idolatry; no Christians are not guilty of sedition; yes Caesar is challenging the Lordship of God in King Jesus; no Jesus is not after Caesar’s throne (yet I would add); yes the resurrection of Jesus and the Christian mission and the worldview it carries does threaten the fundamental stability and order of the Roman life and culture; no, Christians are not violent zealots, etc.
Careful reads like this aren’t popular, but they are necessary for the church to wisely be what she ought to be. I don’t think I have ever seen the mission of God in the church as clearly as I did here — what it is, what it isn’t. At least, in theory.
Two small complaints. (1) I was anxious for the highly practical payoff at the end he kept promising, and I assumed he would speak to the church, since that’s who Acts is written to, right? Wrong. It’s not that his analysis and application isn’t highly relevant, it’s that his conclusion especially targets liberal “Christian” scholarship, and it feels as though he’s forgotten about the church in some ways here. (2) For the love of those of us who only know one or two languages, offer some translations here and there. Not even of the Greek — but at least the German!
These complaints shouldn’t dissuade a read. In fact, they don’t dissuade a 5 star review, because his careful read is so important.
Careful reads like this aren’t popular, but they are necessary for the church to wisely be what she ought to be. I don’t think I have ever seen the mission of God in the church as clearly as I did here — what it is, what it isn’t. At least, in theory.
Two small complaints. (1) I was anxious for the highly practical payoff at the end he kept promising, and I assumed he would speak to the church, since that’s who Acts is written to, right? Wrong. It’s not that his analysis and application isn’t highly relevant, it’s that his conclusion especially targets liberal “Christian” scholarship, and it feels as though he’s forgotten about the church in some ways here. (2) For the love of those of us who only know one or two languages, offer some translations here and there. Not even of the Greek — but at least the German!
These complaints shouldn’t dissuade a read. In fact, they don’t dissuade a 5 star review, because his careful read is so important.
February 20, 2024
3.5 stars. This was way above my level so it was a...fun?... challenge. I was fascinated by the relation of early Christianity in its political context and the pieces I understood were very enlightening. I am reticent to disagree with someone clearly so exponentially smarter than I but such is the nature of having an opinion and not being an expert I guess. I won't go into those disagreements here cuz I usually disagree with something of everything I read lol. It was challenging and the parts I was tracking with made me feel super smart 🤓 I weirdly agreed with a TGC review of the book which is sure to send me into a months-long existential crisis.
March 16, 2013
One of the most sophisticated pieces of Biblical scholarship I've ever seen, Rowe's work is a refreshing re-assessment of Acts in Graeco-Roman context. The most amazing part of his argument is his ability to "think the tension alongside the author of Acts." What precisely is the tension? The early Christians' reputation for simultaneously (1) upsetting the Roman status quo through their proclamation of another Lord named Jesus and (2) their status as "righteous/innocent" (diakaios) in the eyes of Roman jurisprudence. Early Christianity, as narrated by Acts, was neither subversive nor complicit with the Roman way of life. It didn't fit harmoniously with Graeco-Roman culture, but neither could that culture completely condemn it as an outright challenge to the Pax Romana. In Rowe's words, Christianity exhibits a completely different way of "being in the world" or "total way of being" that doesn't fit neatly in the categories of Roman life. His argument, in nuce, tries to untie this complex tension (a nice dialectical reading in the tradition of Hegel, Barth, Bonhoeffer, etc.): "The Christians are not out to establish Christendom, as it were. New culture, yes--coup, no. The tension is thus set."
The taughtly drawn thread that holds this tension together, according to Acts, is a set of fundamental Christian practices/a habitus that the early Church carried out. Three core practices were essential: the proclaimation of Jesus as Lord; meeting together to physically constitute the Church; and mission.
In an age of specialization, Rowe's work is satisfyingly multidisciplinary. He blends philosophy (McIntyre and Charles Taylor), theology (Barth figures prominently - I love the opening paragraph of Ch. 2: "God is not derivative of human culture, but generative"), classic studies (esp. Lane Fox's "Pagans and Christians"), and, of course, NT scholarship. Rowe is able to work across so many disciplines because, as he argues, the narrative of Acts demands that we approach it with everything we have: "the larger debate [in Acts] over how to read teh world does not occur behind conference tables in a placid university auditorium - or in Plato's Academy - but in the rough and tumble everyday life of various cities around the Roman empire." (102)
Taken together, every facet of Rowe's work not only impresses, but calls the reader to enter into the ongoing narrative set in motion by the resurrection of the Crucified one - a movement that calls us to be a community of witness in our world.
Quotes:
"In its attempts to form communities that witness to God's apocalypse [i.e. revelation in Jesus Christ], Luke's second volume is a highly charged and theologically sophisticated political document that aims at nothing less than the construction of an alternative total way of life - a comprehensive pattern of being - one that runs counter to the life-patterns of the Graeco-Roman world"
"The ultimate origin of the Christian mission lies in the act of God. That is why the Christian mission is a novum: it does not, it cannot, arise naturally out of the mundane sphere - death is the final boundary of the natural human life - but comes directly from the new life given by God to Jesus on the other side of death. The location of the origin of Christian mission according to Acts, that is, is beyond death, and in this way Christian mission exceeds dramatically all human possibilities of creation and initiation." (123)
"Taken as a whole, Acts' mode of discourse thus sits uneasily next to - or perhaps better confronts - what is still the predominant epistemological paradigm in NT studies - the encyclopedic way of knowing [according to McIntyre]" (174)
The taughtly drawn thread that holds this tension together, according to Acts, is a set of fundamental Christian practices/a habitus that the early Church carried out. Three core practices were essential: the proclaimation of Jesus as Lord; meeting together to physically constitute the Church; and mission.
In an age of specialization, Rowe's work is satisfyingly multidisciplinary. He blends philosophy (McIntyre and Charles Taylor), theology (Barth figures prominently - I love the opening paragraph of Ch. 2: "God is not derivative of human culture, but generative"), classic studies (esp. Lane Fox's "Pagans and Christians"), and, of course, NT scholarship. Rowe is able to work across so many disciplines because, as he argues, the narrative of Acts demands that we approach it with everything we have: "the larger debate [in Acts] over how to read teh world does not occur behind conference tables in a placid university auditorium - or in Plato's Academy - but in the rough and tumble everyday life of various cities around the Roman empire." (102)
Taken together, every facet of Rowe's work not only impresses, but calls the reader to enter into the ongoing narrative set in motion by the resurrection of the Crucified one - a movement that calls us to be a community of witness in our world.
Quotes:
"In its attempts to form communities that witness to God's apocalypse [i.e. revelation in Jesus Christ], Luke's second volume is a highly charged and theologically sophisticated political document that aims at nothing less than the construction of an alternative total way of life - a comprehensive pattern of being - one that runs counter to the life-patterns of the Graeco-Roman world"
"The ultimate origin of the Christian mission lies in the act of God. That is why the Christian mission is a novum: it does not, it cannot, arise naturally out of the mundane sphere - death is the final boundary of the natural human life - but comes directly from the new life given by God to Jesus on the other side of death. The location of the origin of Christian mission according to Acts, that is, is beyond death, and in this way Christian mission exceeds dramatically all human possibilities of creation and initiation." (123)
"Taken as a whole, Acts' mode of discourse thus sits uneasily next to - or perhaps better confronts - what is still the predominant epistemological paradigm in NT studies - the encyclopedic way of knowing [according to McIntyre]" (174)
August 15, 2018
I liked what Rowe had to say. The book isn’t that long. I’m used to reading academic biblical studies, but this was still a slog for me.
October 21, 2025
Some scholars argue that Luke-Acts is an apology towards the Romans, trying to demonstrate the innocence of the early Christian movement. As the argument goes, the Christians are law abiding and inoffensive, and when Romans take offense, it's only because they misunderstand the early church and Christian teaching. Jesus was killed but innocent, Peter and Paul were persecuted but innocent, and there is nothing inherently seditious about the movement of the early church.
The opposing argument is that Luke-Acts is subversively and inherently anti-Roman so that to say that Jesus is "Lord of all" is to say that Caesar is not. The Romans persecute the early church because Christianity is countercultural and in direct competition with Roman ways and values.
As I understand it, Rowe's argument in this book is that neither of these is quite right. Instead, the early church is not at all seditious - it is not anti-Roman and not trying to replace the Roman State with something else - but, it is also so inherently contrary to Roman culture that a clash between Romans and Christians was inevitable. Luke wants to ensure that everyone knows that Christians are innocent, but it's also the case that, by definition, Christians and Roman culture cannot mix or even peacefully co-exist, and this results in tension and conflict even when the Christians were not looking for it. The Lordship of Jesus rules out any notions of polytheism and idolatry.
After reading this book, I also read the response articles by Sleeman and Barclay, and Rowe's response article to those responses. This all made for a fascinating discussion. I think Barclay's rebuttals are apt, and need careful thought, but whether I agree with all of Rowe's arguments is secondary to the generative nature of the work. I was energized by this book and came away from it with a much deeper appreciation for Luke's goals in Acts.
If there is a downside here, it's that this book is deeply inaccessible to all but for specialists, and it did not need to be so. The endnotes should have been footnotes, and German and Latin quotes should have received footnote translations. Even the longer Greek quotes should probably have been translated in footnotes. This would have been a simple enough change that would have made the book MUCH smoother.
Overall, it's an excellent work that I'll revisit in the future.
The opposing argument is that Luke-Acts is subversively and inherently anti-Roman so that to say that Jesus is "Lord of all" is to say that Caesar is not. The Romans persecute the early church because Christianity is countercultural and in direct competition with Roman ways and values.
As I understand it, Rowe's argument in this book is that neither of these is quite right. Instead, the early church is not at all seditious - it is not anti-Roman and not trying to replace the Roman State with something else - but, it is also so inherently contrary to Roman culture that a clash between Romans and Christians was inevitable. Luke wants to ensure that everyone knows that Christians are innocent, but it's also the case that, by definition, Christians and Roman culture cannot mix or even peacefully co-exist, and this results in tension and conflict even when the Christians were not looking for it. The Lordship of Jesus rules out any notions of polytheism and idolatry.
After reading this book, I also read the response articles by Sleeman and Barclay, and Rowe's response article to those responses. This all made for a fascinating discussion. I think Barclay's rebuttals are apt, and need careful thought, but whether I agree with all of Rowe's arguments is secondary to the generative nature of the work. I was energized by this book and came away from it with a much deeper appreciation for Luke's goals in Acts.
If there is a downside here, it's that this book is deeply inaccessible to all but for specialists, and it did not need to be so. The endnotes should have been footnotes, and German and Latin quotes should have received footnote translations. Even the longer Greek quotes should probably have been translated in footnotes. This would have been a simple enough change that would have made the book MUCH smoother.
Overall, it's an excellent work that I'll revisit in the future.
August 7, 2021
The format of this book makes it difficult to read. It uses inappropriate words and phrases such as “voodoo dolls,” “old wives’ tales,” and “kowtowing.”
More substantively, the book argues that the universal lordship of Jesus entails a critique of the idolatrous practices of ancient cultures (and the economic systems build around them) while at the same time not being inherently seditious because it does not threaten the lordship of Caesar.
But to threaten the structures of Roman culture is to threaten Roman peace and the difference between this and sedition is hard to parse. The author tends to call the aspects of culture problematic to Christianity “pagan” while concluding that the very aspects of Roman culture adopted by Western culture happen to be the same as those the author believes Luke approves of. According to the author, Acts demands that readers accept its proclamation of the universal lordship of Christ in order to understand it correctly, which gives Rowe the grounds for his interpretation, but he does not address the possibility that his own Western 21st century social location might suggest some humility about his ability to perfectly apprehend Luke’s meaning and truth claims. Finally, the book asserts that the repeated declarations of the innocence of Christians of the charge of sedition, which Rowe takes to mean that Christianity does not espouse violence, removes any warrant for Christians to coerce conversions when they have the power to do so, even though he asserts as a Christian tenet that Christianity is good for all people whether or not they know it.
More substantively, the book argues that the universal lordship of Jesus entails a critique of the idolatrous practices of ancient cultures (and the economic systems build around them) while at the same time not being inherently seditious because it does not threaten the lordship of Caesar.
But to threaten the structures of Roman culture is to threaten Roman peace and the difference between this and sedition is hard to parse. The author tends to call the aspects of culture problematic to Christianity “pagan” while concluding that the very aspects of Roman culture adopted by Western culture happen to be the same as those the author believes Luke approves of. According to the author, Acts demands that readers accept its proclamation of the universal lordship of Christ in order to understand it correctly, which gives Rowe the grounds for his interpretation, but he does not address the possibility that his own Western 21st century social location might suggest some humility about his ability to perfectly apprehend Luke’s meaning and truth claims. Finally, the book asserts that the repeated declarations of the innocence of Christians of the charge of sedition, which Rowe takes to mean that Christianity does not espouse violence, removes any warrant for Christians to coerce conversions when they have the power to do so, even though he asserts as a Christian tenet that Christianity is good for all people whether or not they know it.
July 26, 2020
Really lovely read of Luke's project in Acts. Is the first century church a political revolution, such that Caesar should be dethroned? Not really. Should the church submit to Rome full-stop? Not really. Rowe invites us to see a middle way between the caricature of the early Christian community in Acts as either political incendiaries or a state-sponsored Christendom (which it would later become).
According to Rowe's read of Acts, the middle, higher way of the community of Jesus calls for an alternative way of life that intrinsically contains economically and socially destabilizing lifestyle habits, but that ultimately holds a culture-shifting, world-upside-down theological claim as it's motivating force: Jesus is Lord. This isn't strictly the political realm... the Christian community is an ontologically distinct kingdom that collides with Rome, morally and metaphysically.
Rowe lets the entirety of the scriptural witness speak, without prioritizing certain texts over others. I appreciate his project methodologically, and this book is ultimately ripe with practical implications for the life and mission of the church.
According to Rowe's read of Acts, the middle, higher way of the community of Jesus calls for an alternative way of life that intrinsically contains economically and socially destabilizing lifestyle habits, but that ultimately holds a culture-shifting, world-upside-down theological claim as it's motivating force: Jesus is Lord. This isn't strictly the political realm... the Christian community is an ontologically distinct kingdom that collides with Rome, morally and metaphysically.
Rowe lets the entirety of the scriptural witness speak, without prioritizing certain texts over others. I appreciate his project methodologically, and this book is ultimately ripe with practical implications for the life and mission of the church.
September 20, 2023
I read this book in preparation for a New Testament pilgrimage following Paul’s travels in Greece. My reaction to the book was mixed. On the positive side, the author provided a very compelling way to read Acts that makes the book less of a detached history (as I tended to see it) and more of a book that uses the historical stories to make its gospel point. This reason alone makes the book worth reading. On the negative side, this is a very academic book, full of hard to understand and convoluted language and sentence structure. It really is a chore to read through, even as many of the underlying points are really interesting. Another negative for me is that the author frequently quotes non-English phrases (Greek, German) but doesn’t translate them, but then comments on them. And so frequently I had no idea what he was talking about except what I could glean from the context. Overall this book requires a lot of effort to get through but there is a worthwhile message to be found.
February 14, 2023
Fantastic. A profound piece of scholarship that presses its reader in their biblical hermeneutic, their cultural assumptions, and their political aspirations. This is a scholarly monograph and so expect to engage with it with those skills and in that framework.
I’m exceptionally grateful for this work and Dr. Rowe’s new social imaginary will be rattling around my head and forming my thinking for a very long time.
I’m exceptionally grateful for this work and Dr. Rowe’s new social imaginary will be rattling around my head and forming my thinking for a very long time.
December 10, 2021
Dense and important look at how Acts depicts the early church’s relationship to the culture and politics it faced. Leans to the academic side of things and is not an easy read. The author has another book - Christianity’s Surprise - which reaches similar conclusions but written for a popular audience.
September 5, 2021
Very complex book and would help to know Greek. Essentially argues that Acts pits Jesus against Caesar and views Christianity as political. I especially loved the expounding of how Paul's confrontation of polytheism was very dangerous for him and connected to the execution of Aristotle.
December 26, 2022
This book is well-researched and opens up new understanding to me. I have read commentaries and other sources regarding the book of Acts, but this one’s goes a lot deeper in regards to Paul’s defense before the Roman officials. Whew…the message challenged me!
October 14, 2024
This book is awesome.
March 18, 2021
4.5–5 stars
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Review:
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May 25, 2014
Rowe eschews the common interpretive methodologies that merely extract historical and/or doctrinal information from the book of Acts to add to a larger interpretive scheme, which can lead to atomistic readings of the text. Rather, he takes Acts on its own terms, which he describes as a rich exposition of the ecclesial life that was a "cultural explication of God's identity" (18). He holds that there were three core ecclesial practices of the early church: confession that Jesus is Lord, universal mission, and the formation of a tangible, Christian community. If any of the three practices was missing, all the lived tension with the Roman authorities would have disappeared. At any rate, the "intolerant" nature of the confession must be tempered by the danger of living a false life; one that embodies the lie that makes *practically* untrue the fundamental (and poorly punctuated) claim "οὗτός ἐστιν πάντων κύριος" (this is the Lord of all - Acts 10:36).
September 2, 2012
Excellently done! Rowe successfully manage to read the tension between cultural confrontation and non-coercion in Acts, producing deep insight into the role of praxis in Early Christian identity.
January 12, 2013
One of my favorite reads of 2012
June 26, 2024
One of the best books written on Luke-Acts. Has utterly changed how I read the pair of writings. I have no critiques or complaints.
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