3,060 research outputs found
A dynamic reading of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts.
No full textThis study examines the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts through a new perspective: 'dynamic biblical narrative criticism'. Chapter I briefly surveys the past and present issues in the study of the Holy Spirit in Luke and Acts by focusing on three representative scholars: J. D. G. Dunn; R-P. Menzies; M. M. B. - Turner, while noting that their research (including that of other influential scholars) was almost always undertaken by 'historical critical methods', especially 'redaction criticism’. Then I set out my methodology and procedure for the present work. Chapter 2 provides the literary repertoire of the Lukan Holy Spirit by examining the use of ruach or pneuma in the Jewish Bible and concludes that the divine Spirit in the extra text is always characterized as God's own Spirit, revealing his will/purpose by representing his power, activity and presence through his human agents. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 explore the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts as dynamic biblical narrative. Chapter 3 discusses the relationship between the narrator’s point of view and the Spirit and notes especially that this point of View focuses not only on God and Jesus, but also on the Holy Spirit. References to the Holy Spirit are used to suggest narrative reliability: both the Lukan narrator and reliable characters are positively associated with the 'divine frame of reference', particularly with the Holy Spirit. Chapters 4 and 5 elucidate the Holy Spirit as a literary character through narrative theories of 'character' and 'characterization'. So Chapter 4 analyses the Spirit ill terms of 'character-presentation' and concludes that the Holy Spirit is characterized as God's promised Holy Spirit giving God's power and insight for his ongoing plan to God's human agents and his people in general as anticipated in the literary repertoire. At the same time, however, the Spirit is also characterized in close relation to (the risen) Jesus the Messiah and Lord, and after Jesus’ ascension the Spirit is almost always presented in contexts in which Jesus' witnesses are said to bear witness to the risen Jesus, not only to Jews, but also to Gentiles. Chapter 5 further explores the characterization of the Holy Spirit ill terms of the narrative function of the Spirit in relation to the causal aspect of the plot. It is argued that the major narrative function of the Holy Spirit is to empower and guide individual characters as God's human agents and Jesus' witnesses to seek and save God's people in accordance with the plan of God, while the Spirit also functions as verifying group characters as incorporated into God's people and is employed in relation to the life- situations of believers in settled communities by granting them charismatic gifts or comforting and encouraging them or initiating forms of patriarchal leadership. Chapter 6 summarizes the conclusions of the earlier chapters and briefly draws out implications of the results. of this study: (1) the theological significance of the Lukan presentation of the Holy Spirit and (2) the relationship of the Holy Spirit to (a) the narrator or implied author, (b) the text and (c) the implied reader of Luke-Acts, with final remarks about the legitimacy of Lukan ideology, the power of modem readers and my reading
The Spirit and the 'other': social identity, ethnicity and intergroup reconciliation in Luke-Acts
No full textThis dissertation investigates the relationship between the Holy Spirit, ethnic identity and the ‘other’ in Luke-Acts. I argue that the Spirit is the central figure in the formation of a new social identity that affirms, yet chastens and transcends ethnic identity. The investigation is informed methodologically by social identity theory (discussed in chapter 2), a branch of social psychology that examines the effects of group membership upon human identity and intergroup relations.
Chapters 3 and 4 investigate the relationship between privileged social identity, the influence of the Spirit and the allocation of group resources to the ‘other’ in Luke 1-4. I conclude that there is an identifiable relationship between the presence of the Spirit and the extension of in-group benefits to the ‘other’.
Chapters 5 through 8 enquire into the role of the Spirit in Acts 1-15. In chapters 5 and 6 I identify the Pentecost narrative as the initial clue to the place of ethnic identity within the Jesus movement and the role of the early community in the formation of an allocentrically oriented social identity. In chapters 7 and 8 attention is directed to the role of the Spirit in both the orchestration of intergroup contact and the identification of those rightly related to God. Luke’s use of ‘ethnic language’ alerts us to the precision with which he approaches this topic. I conclude that Luke is convinced of an inseparable relationship between the Spirit and human identity that robustly affirms ethnicity nested within one’s identity as a member of the Jesus group. The existence of this Spirit-formed identity allows for profound expressions of interethnic reconciliation in Luke-Acts. This conclusion grants a broader role to the Spirit in Luke-Acts than the current scholarly consensus which suggests that Luke views the Spirit as the Old Testament/Second Temple ‘Spirit of prophecy’
Luke’s use of the Old Testament in Luke 22-23
No full textWhile Luke understands Jesus' suffering and death as the fulfillment of OT prophecy, he does not use many OT quotations or allusions to express this fact in his passion narrative. The question arises: How does Luke use the OT in his passion narrative, especially to show prophetic fulfillment?This study seeks to answer this question through an identification and analysis of the OT quotations, allusions, ideas, and stylistic elements in Luke 22-23. The criteria for identification and critical analysis are gathered from studying the history of scholarship on the subject from the Reformation to 1972.Our findings are that Luke presents the fulfillment of the key OT prophecy in his passion narrative, Is. 53:12/Lk. 22:37, through a thematic development of various aspects of its message. Other OT quotes, allusions, ideas, and stylistic elements contribute to the development of this theme. Luke's approach to the OT is Christocentric both in the sense that all the quotations and most of the allusions occur in the reported words of Jesus, and in the sense that most of Luke's OT material refers to the OT promises of a suffering and glorified Messiah. OT ideas also occur mainly in the reported words of Jesus and the OT stylistic elements are best understood as examples of LXX style imitation. We found that Luke's lack of allusions and quotations was probably due to his desire to have his readers relive the fulfillment events of the Passion as they unfold in the narrative without being distracted by editorial fulfillment proof~texts. Yet, at the same time Luke, the Christian theologian to the Gentiles, did make extensive use of the OT. With a Christocentric interpretational approach to understanding OT prophecy and theological content within a salvation history framework, Luke shows how the OT was important to Gentile Christians
Luke's Thematic Characterization the Infancy Narrative (luke 1-2) and Beyond
No full textRecently scholars involved in narrative analysis seem to have overlooked the role
of the narrator and overemphasized that of the readers. They even have different
perspectives on the identification of the readers. Whoever the reader is, they place an
omnipotent ability onto the reader as the master of interpreting the biblical narratives so
that the reader maintains an unchanged position in this field but the narrator loses his/her
effect. Such a tendency becomes more problematic in dealing with biblical
characterization. With this problem in mind, the principal objective of this dissertation is to
demonstrate the dynamic relationship between the narrative themes and characters
created by the Lukan narrator rather than the reader in the Infancy Narrative. This
study considers the narrator as the main entity who creates the narrative themes,
especially in relation to the narrative characters, and presents a model of narrative
analysis which has been formalized for the study of the Luke's thematic characterization
in the Infancy Narrative (Luke 1-2). The main question of the dissertation is two-fold: 1)
how does the narrator characterize his characters for the sake of his narrative themes?; 2)
What is the thematic function of the Infancy Narrative in the Lukan Gospel in relation to
the narrator's thematization of the characters? In order to answer this question, this study suggests three steps for analyzing the narrative. One is to define the types of characters (on-stage: front ground, foreground, and background; and off-stage: setting and potential), another is to determine narrative themes based upon three dimensions (textual, intertextual, and extratextual), and the other is to observe thematic relations between the characters in the Infancy Narrative and the following parts of the Lukan Gospel. With these steps, this study defmes all characters of the Infancy Narrative and evaluates their thematic roles, and the narrator's themes
conveyed by his characters. Lastly, after examining the thematic coherence through
narrative characters in the Gospel, this dissertation attests that the Infancy Narrative is a
well-designed thematic introduction of the Gospel which establishes the major themes of
the Gospel, conveyed by the divine characters (God, the Holy Spirit, and the angel), John,
Jesus, and others.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD
King and ruler takes his stand: ‘Herod’ as a composite character in Luke-Acts
No full textUsing a narrative-critical approach, this thesis argues that ‘Herod’ may be
construed as a composite character in Luke-Acts. Composite characters appear in
literary works as a conflation of two or more historic individuals into a single
character in a narrative. Scholars have often noted that Luke-Acts evidences a more
extensive interest in the Herodian rulers than do the gospels of Mark and Matthew
and that each of these rulers are depicted similarly to the others in his work.
However, no one has argued that those rulers named ‘Herod’ may be understood as a composite character.
In Luke-Acts, three Herodian rulers stand behind the composite ‘Herod’. The
thesis will show that when compared/contrasted with what is known about the
Herodian rulers from historical evidence, two unique features of the depiction of the
Herodian rulers named Herod in Luke-Acts emerge. First, at Luke 1:5 the author uses
the title ‘King of Judaea’ which is unattested elsewhere for any Herodian ruler.
Second, at Acts 12 the author uses the name ‘Herod’ for Agrippa I, a name that finds
no external corroboration for this particular King. While other occurrences of the
name ‘Herod’ refer to Herod Antipas (Luke 3—Acts 4), these two distinct features of
the narrative may be understood as conflation of the other ‘Herods’ with Antipas.
Following an interpretation of all the passages in which ‘Herod’ appears, it will be
evident that ‘Herod’ is portrayed consistently and as a single character not only
through repeated use of the name ‘Herod’, but as a recurring antagonist to the key
protagonists of the narrative (John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles/early church).
Finally, the thesis will consider as explanation of the depiction of ‘Herod’ how this
composite character embodies Satanic opposition from the political realm toward
those who proclaim the gospel in the Lukan narrative
From temple to house-church in Luke-Acts: a Lukan challenge to Korean Christianity
No full textThis dissertation examines the portrayals of the Temple, synagogue, and
house-churches in Luke-Acts to pose a Lukan challenge to the Korean church by using
a model of architectural space which is derived from social-scientific ideas originating
in anthropology, sociology and social psychology. The dissertation proposes the
relevance of the Lukan house-church to the Korean church today so as to transform
the latter's character in its architecture and use of space into the inclusive and
missionary one which is featured in Luke-Acts. The argument of the dissertation
begins with an exploration and defence of social-scientific method (Chapter 1).
Chapter 2 begins with a history and analysis of Korean Christianity which raises
problem surrounding its use of architectural space, before setting out a socialscientific
model of architectural space, which is then applied to contemporary Korean
church architecture. Challenging current understandings of a positive Lukan attitude
toward the Temple, this study proposes in Chapter 3 that Luke had a negative
understanding of the Temple in that it was an oppressive institution characterised by
segmented spaces which divided the people of God and thus showed its illegitimacy in
relation to the saving plan of God in Jesus. The dissertation next proposes in Chapter
4 that first-century synagogues were subsidiary Temple spaces which were extended
to most parts of Mediterranean world from the central sanctuary in Jerusalem, and that
Luke portrays the synagogues as similar to the Temple. Contrary to the Temple and
synagogue, the house in Luke-Acts expresses the inclusive salvation of the gospel
which incorporates a variety of people regardless of social status, gender, age and
ethnic origin (Chapter 5). In this interpretation, the house-church is represented as an
inclusive space accessible without institutional constraints. In the Gospel, it serves to
express the Kingdom of God into which sinners are invited to enter through meals and
to be incorporated into a fictive-kinship group created by Jesus. In Acts, the house is
not only a locus of Christian meetings in which the social relationships, characteristic
of family, are practised to enhance and legitimise the social identity of Jesus'
followers, but also the modus operandi of Christian mission through which the Christ-movement
spreads throughout the Mediterranean world. This study concludes with an
Epilogue containing brief suggestions for changes in Korean church architecture and
use of space based on these Lukan insights, which have the potential radically to
transform Korean Protestant Christianity
The Ascension of Jesus Christ: A Critical and Exegetical Study of the Ascension in Luke-Acts and in the Jewish and Christian Contexts
No full textThe aim of the present dissertation is to analyse and interpret the Ascension of Jesus as described in Luke-Acts, and to examine both the Jewish rapture traditions and the early Christian reception and interpretation of the Lukan accounts. In my research, I tried to explain how the Ascension event was shaped by Luke and the impact it had within the Christian Church of the first centuries.
The first chapter tackles the history of research on the Ascension and the proposed methodology. Following this, the second section of the thesis analyses the Jewish assumption (rapture) traditions found in both canonical and pseudepigraphal writings. The common elements between these traditions and the Ascension of Christ are observed in order to establish a certain dependence of the Ascension narrative on Jewish rapture accounts.
In the third chapter, I examine the two Ascension accounts in Luke-Acts (Lk 24:50-53; Acts 1:9-11) and aim to explain the apparent inconsistencies between them. Certain aspects, such as redundancy and variations, are discussed in detail in the third section of this chapter.
The fourth chapter focuses on the reception and interpretation of the Lukan Ascension narratives within the early Christian Church (the pre-Nicene period). Finally, a summary of the entire thesis and some final remarks are drawn in the conclusion of the present study.
Two excursuses relevant to this research are included in the appendices: the first on the Jewish Hekhalot literature and Merkabah mysticism; and the second examining the Ascension in the Gospels according to Mark (16:19-20 of the ‘longer ending’) and John (20:17)
Long article on Luke Porter, a Portland High School football player and wrestler
No full textLong article on Luke Porter, a Portland High School football player and wrestler who has the potential to play Division I football
Long article on Luke Porter, a Portland High School football player and wrestler
No full textLong article on Luke Porter, a Portland High School football player and wrestler who has the potential to play Division I football
The voice of Jesus in six parables and their interpreters
No full text'Figures of speech' provide a suggestive key for approaching the question of Jesus' individual tone of voice. Apprehending a figure implies insight into an intention, and beyond intention to discern unconscious influences upon the speaker. This is the conceptual framework for a study of the 'voice of Jesus' in six parables peculiar to Luke (10:25-37; 15:11-32; 16:1-9; 16:19-31; 18:1-8; 18:9-14) and in commentaries upon them. In the premodern era commentators approached the parables with an immediacy of insight, seeking the divine intention behind the texts. Nevertheless we may hear the voice of Jesus echoing in their commentaries in morally specific tones. In the work of Jülicher 'insight', though repudiated, is still important, as he seeks the intention of Jesus through the figure of simile. Jülicher offers insight into Jesus as a passionate communicator, but goes beyond Jesus' intention in making him a propounder of generalities. More recently a concern with the intention of Jesus is replaced by a concern with how his voice was heard. The necessity of insight remains apparent in B.B. Scott's use of metaphor as an interpretative key. An impression is given of Jesus as a provocative subversive. In their context in Luke-Acts, the parables function as metonymies of the gospel, and yield an impression of the voice of Jesus as suggestively concerned with the life of this world. In the ministry of Jesus the parables function as synecdoches, offering hearers a realistic and hopeful 'part' of the world from which they must fashion a 'whole’. Against the background of Scripture the parables display a deep continuity with older forms of discourse, but also important tokens of newness. A stream of influence can be traced from the Old Testament, through Jesus and Luke, and on through their interpreters, though recently its course has been somewhat diverted
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