St. Luke's Missiology:

Harold Dollar

Description

This book touches on the fundamental contributions of Luke's two-volume work revealing how a small Jewish sect became a worldwide movement in one generation. It recognizes the essential unity of Luke-Acts by showing how Luke prepares for the book of Acts. Luke's story of how the gospel moves from the particular to the universal gives insights on the missiological dynamics of early Christianity and provides models for the church and missions today.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part 1 -Overview: Getting the Big Picture

1.     Interpreting Luke-Acts

2.     From Particularism to Universalism

3.     The Challenge of Change

Part 2- The Gentile Mission: Process

4.     The Hellenists: Bridging People

5.     Cornelius: The Paradigmatic Conversion

6.     The Jerusalem Council: Nailing It Down

Part 3 - Missiological Application

7.     The Apostles: Models of Frontier Mission

8.     Paul as a Model for Frontier Missions

9.     Table-Fellowship and World Missions

Conclusion

Bibliography

Scripture Index

Subject Index

Sujets

• Biblical Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Frontier Missions
• The Apostles
• Particularism
• Cornelius
• Universalism
• New Testament
• Hellenistic civilization
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: William Carey Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 juin 1996
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780878089994
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Copyright 1996 by Harold Dollar

All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means--electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-- except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles or printed reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dollar, Harold E. St. Luke’s missiology: a cross-cultural challenge / Harold Dollar. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87808-267-4 (alk. paper) 1. Bible. N.T. Luke--Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Bible. N.T. Acts--Criticism, interpretation, etc. 3. Missions--History-Early church, ca. 30-600. 4. Sociology, Biblical. I. Title. BS2589. D593 1996

226.4'06--dc20

Digital eBook Release 2023 ISBN: 978-0-87808-999-4

96-8292 CIP

Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction 1: Overview: Getting the Big Picture 1. Interpreting Luke-Acts 2. From Particularism to Universalism 3. The Challenge of Change 2: The Gentile Mission: Process 4. The Hellenists: Bridging People 5. Cornelius: The Paradigmatic Conversion 6. The Jerusalem Council: Nailing It Down 3. Missiological Application 7. The Apostles: Models of Frontier Missions? 8. Paul as a Model for Frontier Missions 9. Table-Fellowship and World Missions Conclusion Bibliography Scripture Index Subject Index

Acknowledgments

There are a number of people that I want to thank for their assistance in enabling me to complete and publish this book. Many of the students at Biola University have read these chapters, listened to my lectures on Acts and critiqued my ideas, both in the classroom and in informal discussions. ese students have been undergraduates and graduates, university students and seminary students. eir challenges and suggestions have been of immense help in clarifying my ideas. Michael “Chico” Goff and Bill Hunt have made a number of suggestions that have influenced the structure of the book. My family has encouraged this project every step along the way. My son Shawn, who is now in the Central African Republic, makes inquiries on my progress in every letter he writes. Sharon, my wife, has read all of this book and given me help each step of the way, including very strong exhortations to finish it and get my ideas out into the market place. Dr. Michael Wilkins has encouraged me and made specific suggestions on my scholarly development in New Testament studies. Dr. Sherwood Lingenfelter has encouraged me to put my missiological interpretation of Luke-Acts in print. It is due to his encouragement and the specific help of Biola University that this publication will see the light of day. Finally, I would like to thank my God for Dr. Luke and his phenomenal production of an almost seventy-year story of early Christianity that remains unparalleled in the history of Christianity. is story has captured my mind, and heart and my greatest pleasure is to study and teach this story. My prayer is that those who read this book will better understand the heart of the Triune God, which is a missionary heart.

Introduction

Over the past twenty years of studying and teaching Acts on the mission field and at Biola University, I have become convinced of Luke’s importance in understanding early Christianity and the mission of the church today. Commentaries, theological works on Luke-Acts and sociocultural studies have been immensely helpful in this process. But frequently students miss the missiological contributions Luke makes to the story of early Christianity even when studying good biblical works on Luke-Acts. is study proposes to help readers of Acts in seeing more clearly some of the missiological dimensions of Luke- Acts. St. Luke’s Missiologytouches on some of the fundamental contributions of Luke’s two- volume work as he tells of how a small Jewish sect became a worldwide movement in one generation. While this book will focus on Acts, section one will recognize the essential unity of Luke-Acts by showing how the Gospel of Luke prepares for the book of Acts. Luke wrote one book in two volumes. ere will be a stress on the missiological insights found in Luke’s writings. Luke’s story of how the gospel moves from the particular to the universal gives insights on the missiological dynamics of early Christianity and provides models for the church and missions today. Who will find the most help from reading this book? Undergraduates and graduates will find this book a helpful supplement in the study of Acts or in giving biblical insights for certain kinds of mission classes, e.g., theology of mission. Missionaries, pastors and lay students will find their understanding of early Christianity and its relevance for today enhanced through this study. Even biblical scholars will be challenged by the missiological dimensions of this book. Although Acts is one of the most missionary books in the Bible, there has been little written on Acts by missiologists. e kinds of issues dealt with in this book will appeal to people who want a serious missiological study of Acts. roughout this study there will be a focus on the process involved as the gospel moves from the particular to the universal. Another specific purpose of this book is to address some of the issues on frontier missions found in Acts. While there are numerous publications on Acts ranging from Bible study materials to Greek commentaries, there are almost no books written from a biblical-missiological standpoint. I believe that the particular paradigm I have developed will bring some new insights and sharpen the church’s understanding and appreciation of Luke’s writings.St. Luke’s Misisologyapproximates a reader rather than a systematic treatment of Luke-Acts as it explores some of Luke’s fundamental themes. Chapter 7 was published inThe International Journal of Frontier Missions (Dollar 1993c:59-65). All of this study is influenced byA Biblical-Missiological Exploration of the Crosscultural Dimensions in Luke- Acts(Dollar 1993b). Although this book is not a systematic treatment of Luke-Acts, there is some continuity of thought as it deals with major themes such as salvation, the mission of the church and the cross-cultural challenge of missions. is book intends to provide a different look at some of these basic themes through the eyes of a missionary who has studied and taught Acts for many years, both on the mission field and in a university context. e book will explore Luke’s missiology in three broad areas. e first division gives an overview of Luke-Acts by looking at how the Gospel of Luke prepares for Acts. is section will demonstrate the essential unity of Luke-Acts. e second section will look at how the gospel, deeply embedded in one particular ethnic group, becomes good news for all peoples. ere will be a special focus on the process revealed in Luke’s conceptualization of early Christianity. is study will conclude with section three, giving some specific missiological suggestions on how Luke’s writings apply to the issue of frontier missions.

PART l

Overview: Getting the Big Picture

Studying Luke-Acts missiologically as the gospel became universal requires the interpreter to keep in mind the precise nature of Luke’s writings. Luke narrates the history of the Christian movement from a religious standpoint. at is, he views the entire story from a divine perspective. Luke uses storytelling to communicate his concerns as a pastor, scholar and participant in early Christianity. Some scholars undervalue Luke’s theology because of a misunderstanding of narrative. In concluding his discussion on the contrast between Paul and Luke, Stephen Wilson says:

We have found that the one thing Luke is not, is a theologian. Insofar as he writes about God, Luke can properly be called a theologian. But this is probably better expressed by saying that Luke’s writings are theocentric, rather than by calling him a theologian. For in comparison with the profound, logical and complex theology of Paul, Luke cannot be said to have produced a theology at all. His main interests were historical and practical.... [I] conclude that he was a pastor and a historian rather than a theologian (1973:255).

Wilson correctly assesses Luke’s pastoral concerns while understating the theological dimension of Luke-Acts. Westerners assume an epistolary form which flows in a linear, logical manner for theological reflection. For them Luke’s narrative style cannot be theology. But we should be reminded that narrative style is the dominant style within salvation history. Almost all of revelation except the letters in the New Testament come to us in narrative form. And, even here, Paul’s letters, for instance, flow in a narrative context and are developed in a story form. e difference in form or genre does not thereby exclude Luke from being considered a theologian (Witherington 1994:2). Luke writes the story of the Christian movement from a religious perspective in a narrative style. Luke is a theologian, even though his theology does not come to us in a formal or systematic sense (Fitzmyer 1981:143-270). Luke will view the entire process of the gospel becoming universal through a divine lens. For Luke the barriers to the gospel in the first century were primarily theological. According to him, while universalism is part of the nature of God and his revelation, God willed that this message be expressed particularistically until the time of Christ. With the incarnation a wholly new theological ingredient is introduced that will change for all times how and with whom God will work. While God’s message has always been universal, the realization of this universalism (in application) could not occur until the incarnation. e theological nature of Luke-Acts diminishes the importance of sociological specifics as this movement moves from the particular to the universal. But in narrating the story of such a process, Luke does provide a great deal of information that either points to or implies cross-cultural dynamics. In most cases the cross-cultural insights found in Luke- Acts cannot be deduced by looking for precise sociological statements. Because Luke views everything that happens from a religious standpoint, his interest in the sociological specifics of the cross-cultural is limited. is understanding is fundamental when interpreting Luke- Acts from a cross-cultural standpoint. is first section of the book will look at three issues that both link Luke’s two volumes and give an overview of his writings. e first chapter will look briefly at the history of the interpretation of Acts and outline five different approaches that have influenced my interpretation of Luke’s writings. e second chapter will demonstrate how Luke’s overall purpose influenced how he structured volume one and how this purpose would influence the choices he made in the stories he would include. e final chapter of this section will deal with the challenge of change as the gospel moves from a purely Jewish context (particularism) to eventually include the Gentiles (universalism).