Luke's Wealth Ethics

Luke's Wealth Ethics
Author: Christopher M. Hays
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9783161502699

Christopher M. Hays addresses the apparent incongruity in Luke's ethical paraenesis and argues that Luke's Gospel depicts a spectrum of behaviors which actualize the basic principle of renunciation of all. --Book Jacket.

Reclaiming the Radical Economic Message of Luke

Reclaiming the Radical Economic Message of Luke
Author: David D. M. King
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2022-05-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666733393

No canonical Gospel is more concerned with wealth and poverty than Luke. A centuries-long debate rages over just how revolutionary Luke’s message is. This book seeks to recover Luke’s radical economic message, to place it in its ancient context, and to tease out its prophetic implications for today. Luke has a radical message of good news for the poor and resistance to wealth. God is shown to favor the poor, championing their struggle for justice while condemning the rich and recommending a sweeping disposal of wealth for the benefit of the poor. This represents a distinct break from the ethics of the Roman Empire and a profound challenge to modern economic systems. Generations of interpreters have worked to file down Luke’s sharp edges, from scribes copying ancient manuscripts, to early Christian authors, to contemporary scholars. Such domestication disfigures the gospel, silencing its critique of an economic system whose unremitting drive for profit and economic growth continues to widen the gap between rich and poor while threatening life-altering, environmental change. It is time to reclaim the bracing, prophetic call of Luke’s economic message that warns against the destructive power of wealth and insists on justice for the poor and marginalized.

Characters and Characterization in Luke-Acts

Characters and Characterization in Luke-Acts
Author: Frank Dicken
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2016-10-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567675653

Like all skilful authors, the composer of the biblical books of Luke and Acts understood that a good story requires more than a gripping plot - a persuasive narrative also needs well-portrayed, plot-enhancing characters. This book brings together a set of new essays examining characters and characterization in those books from a variety of methodological perspectives. The essays illustrate how narratological, sociolinguistic, reader-response, feminist, redaction, reception historical, and comparative literature approaches can be fruitfully applied to the question of Luke's techniques of characterization. Theoretical and methodological discussions are complemented with case studies of specific Lukan characters. Together, the essays reflect the understanding that while many of the literary techniques involved in characterization attest a certain universality, each writer also brings his or her own unique perspective and talent to the portrayal and use of characters, with the result that analysis of a writer's characters and style of characterization can enhance appreciation of that writer's work.

Sacramental Charity, Creditor Christology, and the Economy of Salvation in Luke's Gospel

Sacramental Charity, Creditor Christology, and the Economy of Salvation in Luke's Gospel
Author: Anthony Giambrone
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2017-07-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9783161548598

In this work, Anthony Giambrone investigates the appropriation and development of Jewish charity discourse in Luke's Gospel. In contrast to previous scholarship, neither the coherence of Lukan "wealth ethics" nor its contemporary actualization defines his study. Instead, the sacramental significance of almsgiving becomes the starting point for a more theologically oriented exegesis. The end result recognizes Luke's "Christological mutation" of the inherited tradition.The text is organized around three exegetical probes, each handling parabolic material: i.e. Luke 7:36-50, 10:25-37, and 16:1-31. The author advances an approach to these parables that highlights Christological allegory (metalepsis) as a Lukan narrative device. A break is thus implied with the dominant rationalist constructions of Luke's parabolic art and ethics. Also in contrast to a dominant trend, stress is laid upon Luke's Jewish rather than Greco-Roman context.

The Lukan Lens on Wealth and Possessions

The Lukan Lens on Wealth and Possessions
Author: Rachel L. Coleman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2019-12-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 900441634X

In The Lukan Lens on Wealth and Possessions: A Perspective Shaped by Reversal and Right Response, Rachel Coleman offers a detailed look at Luke’s wealth ethic. The long-debated question of how Luke understands the relationship between followers of Jesus and material possessions is examined with careful exegesis and keen literary and theological sensitivity. The twin motifs established in Luke’s introductory unit (Luke 1:5–4:44)—reversal and right response—provide the hermeneutical lenses that allow the reader to discern a consistent Lukan perspective on wealth in the life of disciples. With an engaging style and an eye to the contemporary church, the book will appeal to both scholars and pastors.

The Path to Salvation in Luke's Gospel

The Path to Salvation in Luke's Gospel
Author: MiJa Wi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2019-05-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567687384

This book investigates Luke's message of salvation in relation to socio-economic issues, and thus concerns salvation of the rich as well as the poor. With a narrative reading of Luke's Gospel built on careful examination of its socio-economic context, it demonstrates that Luke's message of salvation is best understood as: 1) Divine mercy which champions the cause of the poor and redresses the injustice of the world, 2) Its human embodiment, and 3) Divine reward promised to those who enact mercy. Wi argues that Luke's question of 'what must we do?' juxtaposes salvation with 'doing', posing interesting questions with respect to the salvation of the rich. This volume highlights good news to the poor in terms of divine mercy and justice, shows that the reception of divine mercy calls for practices, which embody it, and above all clarifies Luke's notion of salvation of the rich which will happen as participation in the salvation of the poor. Wi's conclusion challenges its readers by asking the question along with Luke's audience: What must we do?

The Spirit as Gift in Acts

The Spirit as Gift in Acts
Author: John D. Griffiths
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2022-02-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004504435

The Holy Spirit, being given as a gift in the opening chapters of Acts, initiates and sustains the early Jesus community, empowering their teaching, unity, meals, sharing of possessions and worship.

What Shall We Do?

What Shall We Do?
Author: Joseph M. Lear
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2018-03-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532618204

Since the 1960s, biblical scholars have noted a relationship between eschatology and ethics in Luke–Acts, but to date there has been no substantive study of the relationship between these themes. What Shall We Do? offers such a study. Lear observes and develops a logic that Luke–-Acts presents that begins with eschatological expectation and ends with a particular pattern of life, especially with regard to possessions. He makes the bold claim that Luke has not given up on eschatological expectation. The healing of the cripple (Acts 3), Cornelius’s conversion (Acts 10), and the shipwreck narrative (Acts 27–28) are figurative stories of coming eschatological salvation. In this context, Lear demonstrates that the sharing of possessions becomes the means by which a new eschatological people is formed. At the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist says the true children of Abraham will escape the coming judgment because they share their possessions. The logic of this claim is worked out throughout Luke’s two volumes, culminating in barbarian Maltans becoming children of Abraham because they hospitably receive the Apostle Paul.

The Poor and Their Possessions

The Poor and Their Possessions
Author: David Peter Seccombe
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2022-06-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1666710059

Of all the New Testament writings Luke-Acts focuses particular attention on rich and poor, possessions and poverty. The Poor and Their Possessions is a new edition of a Cambridge doctoral dissertation that has long been out of print. The author's exploration of Luke's thinking is of special importance for Christian preachers, so much effort has gone into making it accessible and readable. Who are the poor? Why are they favored? Did Jesus have a program of social reform? Is renunciation of possessions demanded of all Christians? What guidance does Luke give on the use of possessions? Did the early church have a community of possessions? To whom was Luke's material targeted? What was its purpose? These and other questions find their answers in the book. Besides its clear argument, this book is a treasure store of careful study of some difficult but important passages from Luke and Acts.