The Early Christian Community
A Narrative Analysis of Acts 2:41-47 and 4:32-35
by Douglas A. Hume
Douglas A. Hume offers a narrative ethical reading of the passages depicting the early Christian community in Acts (2:41-47 and 4:32-35). He begins with a methodological exploration of how contemporary scholars may examine the impact of biblical narratives upon reader’s moral imaginations. Given the presence of friendship language in Acts, the work subsequently launches into an examination of this idiom in Greco-Roman philosophical and literary works by Aristotle, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Iamblichus. The author then proceeds to an exegetical examination of how friendship language is employed by Luke in the narrative summaries of Acts. This ethical reading of the Acts 2:41-47 and 4:32-35 incorporates multiple features of narrative criticism and asks such wide ranging questions as the use of emotion, point of view, and characterization to shape the reading audience’s perception of God, the early Christian community, and other characters within the story of Luke-Acts. This study has implications for biblical studies, practical theology, and contemporary understandings of ecclesiology.
- By (author) Douglas A Hume
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Didactic Hymnody among Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians
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Peacemaking through Blood in Colossians
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Lukan Joy and the Life of Discipleship
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Peter’s Halakhic Nightmare
The 'animal' vision of Acts 10:9-16 in Jewish and Graeco-Roman Perspective
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Narratologie und biblische Exegese
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Christosis
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Christian Identity in Corinth
A Comparative Study of 2 Corinthians, Epictetus, and Valerius Maximus
Volume 243
Das Romische Imperium im Lukanischen Doppelwerk
Darstellung und Ertragspotenzial fur christliche Leser des spaten ersten Jahrhunderts
Volume 547
Early Christian Teachers
The 'Didaskaloi' from Their Origins to the Middle of the Second Century
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