A Light to the Centurions/Robert R. Beck

Descriere

Description In this book, Robert Beck proposes to read Luke-Acts from the perspective of its implied reader. In making this reader a gentile sympathetic to Judaism, like the "God-fearing" centurions inscribed in his text, Luke reverses the empire-critical narrative perspectives of Mark and Matthew. And yet he profoundly challenges imperial cultural values. Luke launches his double narrative with Jesus' proclamation in the Nazareth synagogue. In lieu of the tradition of Ezra with its safeguarding customs, this programmatic announcement promises a path to the gentiles in the tradition of Third Isaiah, with both its releases and its risks. Luke shows a way for the outsider to enter into the traditions of Israel, and not replace them. This reading regards the full narrative sweep of Luke's double work. It yields a fresh look at his Gospel, as well as the largely neglected narrative structure of Acts. "Reading from the perspective of a Gentile, God-fearing friend of the synagogue, Beck constructs Luke-Acts as calling this implied reader (typically a centurion) into Israel's narrative interpreted by Jesus through Isaiah 40-66's vision of a light to the nations. Jesus' teaching subverts and affirms aspects of imperial culture even as Luke-Acts invites Gentiles into a distinctive discipleship." --Warren Carter, Brite Divinity School at TCU "Beck's masterful sleuthing to uncover Luke's 'implied reader' to be a gentile 'fearer of God, ' attracted like a Cornelius to the one God of the Jewish synagogue, poignantly profiles Luke's narrative agenda and rationale for his wholesale re-configuration of his narrative source Mark. . . . Beck succeeds at championing the Luke whose two volumes compose an open invitation to all who, pressed down by unbridled power to the margins of meaninglessness, desire to 'love God' and find new identity in the only God who 'shows no partiality.'" --David P. Moessner, A. A. Bradford Chair of Religion, TCU "In A Light to the Centurions, Robert B