Reading Acts: Theology vs. Literature

Last semester, I took "The Acts of the Apostles" with Jeremy Wynne for my BibLit credit. I really loved that class as we got to learn a lot of the historical context and theological teachings of a book that is normally considered to be just straight history. I know that both Jacob and I will be able to contribute a lot to the theological backgrounds of this text!

As an English major, I found myself wanting to interpret Acts with a more literary than theological lens. I am very excited to see what you have in store for us Doug! But, here are a few things that I am interested in and we hopefully get to explore together...

What are the effects on the reader if one considers Acts to be the "sequel" to Luke? What if Luke-Acts were made into one movie... what then would be the climax? What is the climax of Acts? Why does Luke choose to cut off the book right when Paul gets to Rome - what I was expecting to be the "climax"?

I really love Acts as it shows what the early church was like - and it provides our churches with a "format" to follow. I also think that it has a great place in the canon: between the last gospel and the beginning of Paul's letters. In the New Testament, we have been really interested in authorship and its effects on each gospel's perception/representation of Jesus. For Acts, I think that Luke is setting up the reader with this background for Paul - the man that will be writing most of the New Testament books.