Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians

by Luke Timothy Johnson

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2011

"Christians chronically and desperately need prophecy," says award winning biblical scholar Luke Timothy Johnson. In this and every age, the church needs the bold proclamation of God's transforming vision to challenge its very human tendency toward expediency and self-interest—to jolt it into new insight and energy. For Johnson, the books Luke and Acts provide that much-needed jolt to conventional wisdom. To read Luke-Acts as a literary unit, he says, is to uncover a startling prophetic vision of Jesus and the church—one that imagines a reality very different from the one humans would construct on their own. Johnson identifies in Luke's writings an ongoing call for today's church, grounded in the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ, to embody and enact God's vision for the world.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Fourth, Luke places the explicit citation and interpretation of Scripture almost exclusively within the speeches of his characters.” (Page 25)

“Fifth, the speeches in Acts demonstrate both Luke’s Hellenistic sensibilities—he uses speeches in the manner of historiographers, and he has his characters interpret the Greek version of Scripture—and his immersion in contemporary Judaism: his manner of interpreting the Septuagint finds parallels in the practice of Palestinian Jews who interpreted the Hebrew Scripture.” (Page 25)

“The heart of my examination of Luke-Acts is the analysis of the portrayal both of Jesus and of the apostles in terms of prophecy. Luke characterizes Jesus and the movement that bears his name in ways that anyone familiar with the biblical tradition should recognize as having the marks of the prophet: being inspired by the Holy Spirit, speaking God’s word, embodying God’s vision for humans, enacting that vision through signs and wonders, and bearing witness to God in the world. Reading Luke-Acts in this fashion demonstrates the profound degree of continuity between the two parts of Luke’s story: it is from beginning to end a story about God’s prophets.” (Page 4)

“The second implication is theological: Luke writes his narrative concerning the church as the continuation of the story of Jesus.” (Page 11)

“There is an obvious overlap between the last characteristic (embodiment) and this one. Insofar as the prophet expresses God’s vision for humanity in his or her own life, that is already a form of enactment. But the distinctive aspect of this characteristic is the way in which the prophet works for the realization of God’s vision in the larger world of human culture and politics. Moses once more provides the model. He works tirelessly to form a people that can distinctively live according to God’s vision for all humanity.” (Page 48)

Product Details

• Title: Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians
• Author: Luke Timothy Johnson
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2011
• Logos Release Date: 2012
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Jesus Christ › Prophetic office--Biblical teaching; Bible. N.T. Luke › Theology; Bible. N.T. Acts › Theology; Prophecy › Christianity--Biblical teaching; Church › Biblical teaching
• ISBNs: 9780802803900, 0802803903
• Resource ID: LLS:PROJESPROCHRCH
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:40:10Z

About Luke Timothy Johnson

New Testament scholar and early Christianity historian, Luke Timothy Johnson (1943–), is the Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Professor Johnson earned his BA in Philosophy from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, an MDiv in Theology from Saint Meinrad School of Theology, an MA in Religious Studies from Indiana University, and his PhD in New Testament Studies from Yale University. A former Benedictine monk, Johnson has taught at Yale Divinity School and Indiana University. He is the author of more than 20 books, has published a large number of scholarly and popular articles, anthologies, book reviews, and other academic papers, and lectures and received several awards for excellence in teaching. He often lectures at universities and seminaries worldwide, where he is widely perceived as the leading conservative scholar on the debates surrounding the Jesus Seminar, taking stances against its view of Jesus.