Luke-Acts: Gospeling Peace Amid Empire BIB526 / B
Luke is the only author in the New Testament to compose a biography of Jesus and a biography of the early church. As such, Luke affords us a unique window into how first-generation Christ-followers lived out the teachings of Jesus as they proclaimed 鈥減eace through Jesus Christ鈥� from Jerusalem to Rome (Acts 10:36). This course animates Luke鈥檚 theology of peace and justice through comparative analysis with a neglected conversation partner in Lukan studies: namely, the 鈥淩oman peace鈥� (pax Romana). Rome鈥檚 ideology of peace served as a metonym for 鈥渋mperialism,鈥� wherein Rome coercively pacified subjects through (1) military domination, (2) enslavement, and (3) racism (or the stigmatization of distant peoples as inferior). In conversation with Rome鈥檚 peace, we will investigate how Luke鈥檚 Gospel of Christ鈥檚 peace disrupts pax through coercion with an alternative global imaginary and body politic of shalom-justice that is anti-violent, inclusive, cosmic, corporate, restorative, reparative, transformative, and justice-making. We will also attend to Luke鈥檚 ethnic reasoning and the ways Luke imagines churches that neither erase nor hierarchically rank human difference.