Roman Self-Representation and the Lukan Kingdom of God

Roman Self-Representation and the Lukan Kingdom of God
Author: Michael Kochenash
Publisher: Fortress Academic
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2020-11-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781978707351

This book is a literary analysis of selections from Luke and Acts concerned with: (1) exploring what Luke communicates about God's kingdom by using language and imagery related to the Roman Empire; and (2) evaluating what this communication tells us about Luke's dispositions toward Rome.

Luke Was Not A Christian: Reading the Third Gospel and Acts within Judaism

Luke Was Not A Christian: Reading the Third Gospel and Acts within Judaism
Author: Joshua Paul Smith
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2023-12-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004684727

In this volume Joshua Paul Smith challenges the long-held assumption that Luke and Acts were written by a gentile, arguing instead that the author of these texts was educated and enculturated within a Second-Temple Jewish context. Advancing from a consciously interdisciplinary perspective, Smith considers the question of Lukan authorship from multiple fronts, including reception history and social memory theory, literary criticism, and the emerging discipline of cognitive sociolinguistics. The result is an alternative portrait of Luke the Evangelist, one who sees the mission to the gentiles not as a supersession of Jewish law and tradition, but rather as a fulfillment and expansion of Israel’s own salvation history.

Jesus and the Empire of God

Jesus and the Empire of God
Author: Warren Carter
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2021-06-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725294605

The New Testament Gospels came into existence in a world ruled by Roman imperial power. Their main character, Jesus, is crucified on a Roman cross by a Roman governor. How do the Gospels interact with the structures, practices, and personnel of the Roman world? What strategies and approaches do the Gospels attest? What role for accommodation, for imitation, for critique, for opposition, for decolonizing, for reinscribing, for getting along, for survival? This book engages these questions by discussing the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ origins and birth, his teachings and miraculous actions, his entry to Jerusalem, his death, and his resurrection, ascension, and return. The book engages not only the first-century world but also raises questions about our own society’s structures and practices concerning the use of power, equitable access to resources, the practice of justice, and merciful and respectful societal interactions.

Lydia as a Rhetorical Construct in Acts

Lydia as a Rhetorical Construct in Acts
Author: Alexandra Gruca-Macaulay
Publisher: SBL Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2016-08-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0884141594

A new sociorhetorical study of Acts In Lydia as a Rhetorical Construct in Acts, Gruca-Macaulay explores the sociorhetorical function of the story of Lydia, a named Lydian woman ancient interpreters would have associated with cultural stereotypes of Lydians. As a rhetorical figure, Lydia both influenced and was influenced by the ideology of the surrounding text in Acts 16, as well as the approach Luke–Acts as a whole takes to people who are somehow like Lydia. Features: Displays the rhetorical-cultural portrayal of women in Luke-Acts from the perspective of a first-century Mediterranean audience as compared with the history of scholarship, specifically through a sociorhetorical interpretation of the role of Lydia in Acts Investigates the rhetorical function of Mediterranean social-cultural topoi in qualitative argumentation, with a focus on Greco-Roman physiognomy generally, and Lydian ethnography especially Introduces the rhetorical use of conceptual blending, particularly its application for gaining insight into the function of military discourse in developing the rhetorical force of the Lydia episode in Acts

Revelations

Revelations
Author: Elaine Pagels
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2012-03-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 110157707X

A startling exploration of the history of the most controversial book of the Bible, by the bestselling author of Beyond Belief. Through the bestselling books of Elaine Pagels, thousands of readers have come to know and treasure the suppressed biblical texts known as the Gnostic Gospels. As one of the world's foremost religion scholars, she has been a pioneer in interpreting these books and illuminating their place in the early history of Christianity. Her new book, however, tackles a text that is firmly, dramatically within the New Testament canon: The Book of Revelation, the surreal apocalyptic vision of the end of the world . . . or is it? In this startling and timely book, Pagels returns The Book of Revelation to its historical origin, written as its author John of Patmos took aim at the Roman Empire after what is now known as "the Jewish War," in 66 CE. Militant Jews in Jerusalem, fired with religious fervor, waged an all-out war against Rome's occupation of Judea and their defeat resulted in the desecration of Jerusalem and its Great Temple. Pagels persuasively interprets Revelation as a scathing attack on the decadence of Rome. Soon after, however, a new sect known as "Christians" seized on John's text as a weapon against heresy and infidels of all kinds-Jews, even Christians who dissented from their increasingly rigid doctrines and hierarchies. In a time when global religious violence surges, Revelations explores how often those in power throughout history have sought to force "God's enemies" to submit or be killed. It is sure to appeal to Pagels's committed readers and bring her a whole new audience who want to understand the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world's religions, and to appreciate the lasting appeal of this extraordinary text.

A Postcolonial Reading of the Acts of the Apostles

A Postcolonial Reading of the Acts of the Apostles
Author: Rubén Muñoz-Larrondo
Publisher: Studies in Biblical Literature
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Bible
ISBN: 9781433116087

Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Vanderbilt University, 2008 under title: Living in two worlds: a postcolonial reading of the Acts of the Apostles.

Scripture, Texts, and Tracings in Romans

Scripture, Texts, and Tracings in Romans
Author: Linda L. Belleville
Publisher: Fortress Academic
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2021-02-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781978704718

This book advances the interpretation of Romans by exploring how the Apostle Paul quoted, alluded to, or "echoed" the Jewish Scriptures. Contributors apply recent methodological and interpretive methods in intertextuality to advance our understanding of Paul's Letter to the Romans and suggest avenues for continued research and discussion.

How Ancient Narratives Persuade

How Ancient Narratives Persuade
Author: Eric Clouston
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2020-02-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1978706618

The Acts of the Apostles includes persuasive speeches, but the whole story should also be seen as an act of persuasion. In How Ancient Narratives Persuade: Acts in Its Literary Context, Eric Clouston takes a fresh approach to interpreting Acts, treating it as a persuasive narrative. Comparison with other Greek narratives allows Clouston to show how events and characters––and how they are described as worthy of trust, empathy, or respect, as well as their speeches and narrator asides––all have different persuasive effects. His examination of the persuasive effects of narrative in Acts leads at last to conclusions about the purpose of the work directed to a readership unconvinced by the figure of Paul.

The Logic of Love

The Logic of Love
Author: Ruben Zimmermann
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2018-09-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1978703287

The goal of the present study unfolds in the following four ways. First, in analyzing Pauline writings (primarily Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians) it can be demonstrated that the Apostle can be described as an ethicist. The hypothesis operative here is that in the sources, despite their occasional and situational character and their epistolary form, one can recognize a coherent system of grounds for behavior (i.e., ethics). I call this recognizable ethics “implicit ethics.” Secondly, this work pursues an explicit ethical interpretation of Paul’s writings. What does it mean to read these texts through an ethical lens? I here offer an approach with which one can decipher the ethical content of a historical text. This methodology for ethical analysis (so called ‘organon’) is not only applicable to Paul’s writings, but can also provide an impetus for the ethical interpretation of other NT texts and even for the literature of early Christianity and the Bible more generally. The variety of forms and the complexity of the reflection in Paul’s letters can, in a third point, enrich the discourse of theological ethics. It will be seen, that the rationale for his ethics is pluralistic and simply cannot be described in a one-sided manner as simply being a “deontological ethics of norms.” Along these lines, a fourth element is found in stimulating interdisciplinary debates concerning ethics. If one is able to examine and describe the norms and grounds of justification in Biblical ethics using the language and forms of description utilized in modern ethical theory, biblical ethics could once again gain a voice that can be taken seriously in the modern discussion of values. The point is not to have Scripture per se join the discussion but for these texts to function as a “laboratory” (Paul Ricoeur) in which ethical speech and thought relevant for contemporary concerns can be inspired and encouraged. In a concluding chapter this dialogue is already started by describing specific aspects of Pauline ethics against the background or moral philosophical debate, e.g. “bodily ethics – beyond hedonism”, “ethics of relinquishing – beyond contractual ethics” or “ethics of love beyond Eudaimonian ethics”.

St. Paul, the Natural Law, and Contemporary Legal Theory

St. Paul, the Natural Law, and Contemporary Legal Theory
Author: Jane Adolphe
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2012-03-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0739174231

The editors of this unique collection of essays exploring the relationship of St. Paul and the natural law bring together contributions by scripture scholars, theologians, philosophers, and international lawyers. Inspired by the special Jubilee Year from June 2008 to June 2009 – proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the 2,000-year anniversary of the birth of St. Paul – the chapters in this book are the fruit of the contributors’ collaboration during the celebration of the Year of St. Paul. They share a common appreciation of the natural law as a basis for civil law and contemporary legal theory, and each chapter examines the foundations of the natural law – particularly in the writings of St. Paul – giving special recognition to the Catholic contributions to natural law and contemporary legal theory.