New Book on Acts

My thanks to James Crossley for tipping me off about a forthcoming book entitled, Reading Acts in the Second Century, edited by Ruben Depertuis and Todd Penner. The description reads:

This volume brings together essays by scholars in various sub-disciplines of early Christian studies, with the aim of situating the Acts of the Apostles in the second century. Rather than addressing the question of the date of Acts directly, the focus of these contributions is to explore reading Acts in the context of second-century historical and socio-cultural issues, including a reading of the book alongside second century writers, Christian and other. This book offers a new and radical departure for Christian origins studies, moving the debate beyond explicit historical delineations and filiations, drawing instead on wide and diverse associations between Acts and diverse second century texts, writers, social and textual histories, and broader cultural phenomena of the Second Sophistic. As a result, a better appreciation of the importance of the second century in the construction of Christian origins is gained, opening up the exploration of the second century as a primary formative epoch for Christian beginnings. Further, this collection of essays generates much needed discussion on the reception of Acts—and Christian myth-making practices more generally—in the second century.

Contents:

1. Rubén Dupertuis and Todd Penner (the Editors): “Reading Backwards from the Beginning: Acts of the Second Century and Christian Origin Studies”

2. Heike Omerzu (University of Mainz): “Reading Acts without Luke? On the Reception of the Lukan Acts in the Second Century”

3. Milton Moreland (Rhodes College): “Jerusalem Destroyed: The Unacknowledged Setting of the Readers of Acts”

4. Joseph Tyson (Southern Methodist University): “Reading Acts at a Time of Uncertainty: Issues of Leadership in the Second Century”

5. David M. Reis (University of Oregon): “Spectacular Sights: Vision, Power, and Apostolic Identity in the Acts of the Apostles”

6. Loveday Alexander (University of Sheffield): “Bacchus and Christ: Reading Luke's Acts in an Enchanted World”

7. John Moles (Newcastle University): "Space and Time Travel in Luke-Acts"

8. Shelly Matthews (Furman University): “Luke-Acts, Empire, and Marcion’s Children”

9. Christopher Mount (DePaul University): “Why Were Early Christians Persecuted? Pliny, Tacitus, Suetonius, and the Acts of the Apostles”

10. Rubén R. Dupertuis (Trinity University): “Philosophical Imagery in Acts and the Apologists”

11. Andrew Gregory (University College, Oxford): “Reading Acts with Justin and Irenaeus”

12. Kavin Rowe (Duke Divinity School): “Political Theology: Tertullian as a Reader of Acts”

13. Claire Clivaz (University of Lausanne): “Reading Luke-Acts in Alexandria in the Second Century: Between Clement’s and Apollonius’s Shadow”

14. Todd Penner (Austin College): “Dating Acts (Scholarship): Origins, Purity, and Modernity”