Through a close and informative reading of seven key texts in Acts, Kauppi analyses the appearances of Graeco-Roman religion, offering evidence of practices including divination and oracles, ruler cult and civic foundation myth.

Foreign But Familiar Gods then uses a combination of these scriptural texts and other contemporary evidence (including archaeological and literary material) to suggest that one of Luke's subsidiary themes is to contrast Graeco-Roman and Christian religious conceptualizations and practices.