Contested domains in the conflicts between the early Christian mission and Diaspora Judaism according to the book of Acts

2018 ◽  
pp. 139-181
Author(s):  
Christoph Stenschke
2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-15
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Brown ◽  
Gaynor Yancey

The start of the early Christian church is recounted in the book of Acts.  In Acts 2 (NKJV) shares that after the outpouring of the Spirit of God, over 3,000 believers gather themselves together, where they “held everything in common, shared their resources, and that each person’s needs were met (Acts 2:42, The Message). The following article takes a bird’s eye view that assists us, as social workers, in understanding the importance of community practice. Community calls us to a sense of belonging and inclusion with a group of people.  Community also calls us to consider again our shared values and resources.  This article grounds us in the Biblical narrative, moves to our social work skills and knowledge base, and then concludes with thoughts that encourage us to address the “wicked problems” by being disruptive forces in the planned change process which is at the heart of community practice.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-206
Author(s):  
Roger Stronstad

Abstract Filled with the Spirit by John R. Levison is a highly original study of this theme in Israelite, Jewish, and early Christian literature. The following response to Levison's book focuses on Part III, Early Christian Literature, section 3, 'Filled with the Spirit and the Book of Acts' (pp 317365). Levison organizes his discussion under the topics, 'The Salience of a Slave-Girl', 'The Allure of Ecstasy at Pentecost', 'Speaking in Tongues', and 'Spirit and the Inspired Interpretation of Scripture'. Levison's methodology is a combination of a history of religions approach, intertextuality, and contextual exposition. According to the reviewer's assessment, Levison's approach to the subject paganizes those experiences which Luke portrays to be uniquely Judeo-Christian, profanes what Luke portrays to be an awe-inspiring sacred marvel, and humanizes what Luke portrays to be the mysterious or luminous tangible experiences of the Spirit.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohanes Krismantyo Susanta

This paper uses library research to several kinds of literature that address issues of Christian mission. This paper shows that the early Christian mission came together and was used as a tool in the colonial era to conquer the Indonesian people. Christian mission in the colonial period was understood narrowly to make someone become a Christian. The mission paradigm affects the encounter between Christianity and other religions in Indonesia, especially Islam. Therefore, it is necessary to reconstruct the understanding of Christian mission amid diversity in the context of Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia. Christian mission centred on the doctrine of the Trinity is understood as a joint dialogue to solve social, humanitarian problems. The mission is not a barrier to dialogue, but rather an affirmation of the importance of unity in diversity.


1955 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Calder

The earliest Christians of Phrygia were the nameless converts made by Paul the Apostle when he preached to a congregation of Jews and “Godfearing” gentiles (the latter being Greek or Greco-Phrygian incolae or cives of the colonia and Greek-speaking members of Roman colonial families in the synagogue at Colonia Caesareia Antiocheia in A.D. 49; and before Paul's death the Christian mission to Phrygia had been launched from bases both in the east (Iconium and Antioch) and in the west (Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colossae). Between the middle of the first and the end of the second century, five generations of Phrygian Christians (as Paul expressed it on the same occasion) “fell on sleep and were laid unto their fathers”—in surface family sepulchres along the roads outside the cities and in country graveyards throughout all the hellenised districts of Phrygia. During this period the strong conservatism of Phrygian sepulchral custom, reinforced by the prudence in the face of persecution or proscription held to be enjoined by Scripture (had not Jesus himself withdrawn into Gethsemane?), precluded the open display on tombstones—in all ages the consecrated tokens of sorrow and of hope—of any trace of the Christian profession.


1973 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 390-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. H. Scobie

After the account of the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem (chapters i to vii), the Book of Acts tells in viii. 1 f. of a dispersion of the Church throughout Judaea and Samaria, followed by a Christian mission to Samaria, led by Philip. It is frequently held that the author of Acts gives an indication of the outline he intends to follow at Acts i. 8 where the risen Christ tells his apostles, ‘You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses [1] in Jerusalem; [2] in all Judaea and Samaria; and [3] to the end of the earth.’ The first section, the witness in Jerusalem, occupies Acts i–vii; Acts viii and ix deal with the witness in Judaea and Samaria; while with the narrative of Peter and Cornelius in Acts x the emphasis shifts to the Gentile mission for the remainder of the book.


2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobus Kok

The Christian concept ‘mission’ is experienced by some as a negative term in the post- modern age of relativism and sensitivity with regard to the perspective and the rights of others. In this article it is postulated that the term ‘mission’ is only negative when mission is understood as an aggressive propagandistic persuasion of others from a position of power (moral high ground). This definition however, is a result of a male-dominated, Kyriarchal (male dominated) perspective, and by implication is ethnocentric and reductionistic in nature. Feminist and postcolonial perspectives open the way for an alternative definition of ‘mission’, which can open up fresh perspectives about mission and ethics in the early Church and these could be considered and in turn could have far-reaching implications for the manner in which the Christian mission is understood in a post-modern context. In this article it is investigated in which way the early Christian ethics of mission created the space within which traditional imperial dominance, gender, race and ethnicity was transformed with an alternative symbolic universe resulting from a reconceptualisation of power or empowerment and loving service from a Christological perspective.


Open Theology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 289-316
Author(s):  
Albert L. A. Hogeterp

Abstract The speech of Stephen in Acts 7:2–53 contains a wealth of references to biblical migration narratives, but their significance for understanding the message of Luke–Acts has been understudied. This is partly due to a recurrent focus on either accusations against Stephen (Acts 6:8–15) or the polemical conclusion of the speech (Acts 7:47–50.51–53). It also partly relates to a teleological interest in early Christian mission narrative. This article reads Stephen’s speech as a counter-cultural discourse on migration and dislocation. It provides a close reading of its biblical story-telling in conjunction with its polemical upshot, and further compares Lucan narrative choices with early Jewish and Jewish Hellenistic literary cycles about patriarchal and Mosaic discourse. It applies a critical lens to the use of ancient narratives of migration and dislocation in discussions about identity, ethnicity, and “othering;” this is of further importance for contemporary identity politics around migration. Through comparing the speech with intra-Jewish dimensions and Graeco-Roman contexts, Stephen emerges as a counter-cultural speaker whose discourse appeals to human–divine intersectionality, specifically regarding the cause of justice for the ill-treated stranger; at the same time, it avoids cultural stereotyping through categories of Hebrews vs Hellenists, Jews vs Christians, Graeco-Roman elite standards vs supposedly “non-European” profiles.


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