<p>This engaging book guides readers through one of the most colorful books of the Bible, illuminating passages from Acts that show the Christian gospel expressing itself through the lives, speech, struggles, and adventures of Jesus's followers. The book emphasizes the disruptive character of the Christian gospel and shows how Acts repeatedly describes God as upsetting the status quo by changing people's lives, society's conventions, and our basic expectations of what's possible. Suited for individual and group study, this book by a New Testament scholar with a gift for popular communication asks serious questions and eschews pat answers, bringing Acts alive for contemporary reflection on the character of God, the challenges of faith, and the church.</p>

Intrusive God, Disruptive Gospel: Encountering the Divine in the Book of Acts

Religion & Spirituality

Matthew L. Skinner

Christian Books & Bibles

Brazos Press

Luke's story of Paul's imprisonment under the Romans provides an unexpected setting for considering the proclamation of the word. This narrative-critical study explores the custody settings of Acts 21â€"28 as places that frame and amplify the detained Paul's social marginality to powerful interests and contends that the settings serve as new venues for Paul's continuing yet redirected missionary vocation. The book provides a penetrating discussion of the relationship between the young church and imperial Rome, suggesting that the accounts of Paul's activity and divine assistance, narrated within settings intended to enforce Roman control, constitute a subtle yet powerful confrontation with and manipulation of the social and religious powers.

Locating Paul: Places of Custody as Narrative Settings in Acts 21-28 (Academica Biblica)

Society of Biblical Literature

Shaping the Scriptural Imagination: Truth, Meaning, and the Theological Interpretation of the Bible

<p>The late Donald H. Juel (1942–2003) devoted his life to engaging scripture faithfully, intelligently, and imaginatively. For Juel, theological interpretation of the Bible meant having an encounter with the living God. This volume identifies and connects many of the overarching themes that animated Juel's work. Including his thoughts on the rhetorical nature of scripture, the challenges facing academic instruction of the Bible, the reader's place in the biblical narrative, and the hope of resurrection, among others, the selections are accessible and engaging and paint a unique portrait of the way Juel thought and lived. Juel seeks to nourish readers in developing richer imaginations about who God is and how Christians meet God through reading the Bible.</p>

Donald H. Juel

Shane Berg

Baylor University Press

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