What Would Jesus Do? is a popular phrase in Christian circles, but answers to that question might be more on-target if we spent more time exploring, as Scott Spencer has, What Did Jesus Do? Spencer examines both the Synoptics and the Gospel of John as he tries to catch a wide-angled vision of Jesus' behavior in the gospels. Rather than focus on sayings or pronouncements as an authoritative code of conduct, he studies Jesus' deeds or actions as keys to his identity and vocation. While not ignoring Jesus' teaching, this study is more interested in discovering how Jesus personally lived up to...

Introduces literary, historical, and theological issues of Luke and Acts.

Biblical texts create worlds of meaning, and invite readers to enter them. When readers enter such textual worlds, which are often strange and complex, they are confronted with theological claims. With this in mind, the purpose of the Interpreting Biblical Texts series is to help serious readers in their experience of reading and interpreting by providing guides for their journeys into textual worlds. The controlling perspective is expressed in the operative word of the title--interpreting....

Journeying through Acts explores the literary and cultural aspects of Acts and offers a fresh reading of this dramatic volume.

Acts is unique in the New Testament canon in part because it is not a gospel or a Pauline letter. It presents a dynamic story of the spread of the Christian gospel from Jerusalem to Rome. The gospel was propelled by the earliest followers of the risen and ascended Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who is arguably the chief protagonist in the narrative.

Spencer's reading offers a traveler's guide through the book of Acts. He charts narrative...

This reading offers a traveller's guide through the book of Acts, charting both narrative features (plot development, character building and shifting points of view) and cultural scenarios informing the story (honor-shame contests, patron-client relations and purity-pollution boundaries). Within this 'literary-cultural' framework, Spencer undertakes to map the temporal, spatial and social settings of each segment of the Acts journey. While often detecting internal repetitive patterns along the way as well as comparative links with the preceding Lukan gospel and Jewish scriptures, this reading...

Engaging feminist hermeneutics and philosophy in addition to more traditional methods of biblical study, Salty Wives, Spirited Mothers, and Savvy Widows demonstrates and celebrates the remarkable capability and ingenuity of several women in the Gospel of Luke. While recent studies have exposed women's limited opportunities for ministry in Luke, Scott Spencer pulls the pendulum back from a negative feminist-critical pole toward a more constructive center.
Granting that Luke sends somewhat -mixed messages- about women's work and status as Jesus' disciples, Spencer analyzes such...