Story Of Jesus Research Articles

Jesus’s Death as Communal Resurrection in Mark Dornford-May’s 2006 Film Son of Man

Instead of trying to recreate the ancient life of Jesus, Mark Dornford-May’s film Son of Man depicts many famous scenes from the gospels, reworked to tell the story of Jesus in the fictitious “Kingdom of Judea, Afrika” with the concerns of local and global poverty, violence, and imperialism. Jesus’s life turns when he directly challenges the Judean leadership, and his arrest, torture, and death reinterpret the dynamics of power from first century imperial Rome in brilliantly analogous fashion both for a localized South African setting and for global settings that struggle under violently repressive governments. Jesus’s death stands as the focal point of communal resurrection, inspiring Mary to challenge the oppression perpetrated by those in power. Jesus’s death serves to express the complexities of international injustice in South Africa and other countries in Africa and around the world, to embolden and unite an oppressed community, and to shine a light on a mother as the leader of this resurrected community.

Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista by Mercedes Navarro Puerto

Reviewed by: Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista by Mercedes Navarro Puerto Barbara E. Reid mercedes navarro puerto, Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista (Estudios Bíblicos; Estella: Verbo Divino, 2020). Pp. 335. Paper €32. This splendid book is the fruit of decades of study by Mercedes Navarro Puerto, beginning with her studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, which resulted in her first publication, María, la mujer: Ensayo psicológico-bíblico (Madrid: Ediciones Claretianas, 1989). This new book aims to give coherence and systematization to the work that has been done in the intervening decades, offering perspectives on Mary that are liberative. Navarro Puerto's method is primarily narrative, while also incorporating the fruits of historical criticism and other newer methods. Her hermeneutical lenses are feminist and psychological. The latter approach is important in that cognitive psychology now recognizes the critical role that narrative plays in the organization of the mind and the ways in which we process reality and construct identity and social interaction. The ways we construct the narrative about Mary are as important, N.P. argues, as how we tell the story of Jesus. N.P. notes that the Mary that most Christians construct is based on cultural memory and a composite of brief mentions of her in the Gospels. Thus, N.P. examines carefully each reference and allusion to Mary in the NT texts, showing quite distinct portraits that emerge. [End Page 504] She pays attention to both the cultural context from which the texts emerge and that into which the texts are inserted now. Throughout, she urges her readers to resist portraits of Mary that serve to advance patriarchy and sexism. Part 1 treats the Gospel of Mark and is titled "Socio-Familiar Ruptures and Transformations." At the outset, Mary is grouped with family members, characterized as mother and the one who heads the family delegation to confront her son (3:31). As Jesus redefines his family (3:33–35), mother is situated with brothers and sisters in a community of equal relations. Mother is no longer defined biologically but is a vocation defined in relation to followers of Jesus. Reading "Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses" in 15:40 and "Mary, the mother of James" in 16:1 as Jesus's mother (in light of 6:3), N.P. sees Mary as having made the choice for discipleship. Part 2 is devoted to Matthew: "At the Crossroads of Life." N.P. gives the bulk of her attention to the infancy narratives. From the genealogy, the reader sees Mary as one in a long line of women whose refusal to remain victimized calls attention the divine presence in the history of God's people, a presence that is not limited by patriarchal structures. The genealogy has an anticipatory function, preparing the reader for categories of discipleship proposed by Jesus that distances his group from familiar structures. Going forward from chap. 2, Matthew orients the characterization of Mary in relation to her son. She is mother above all. As in Mark, Mary moves from being identified as mother to becoming a disciple. The "other Mary" in 28:1 is Jesus's mother, identified as "Mary the mother of James and Joseph" who witnessed the crucifixion (27:56), and the "other Mary" who saw where the body was laid (27:61). In the third part, N.P. treats the works of Luke: "Lights and Shadows of a Woman." Like other feminist scholars, she sees Luke 1:26–38 as both an annunciation of birth and a call story to a prophetic vocation, as exemplified in 1:39–56. Mary's role as interpreter is underscored in 2:19, 51. As one who hears the word and puts it into practice, she moves, as in the other Synoptic Gospels, from mother to disciple. Located in the center of the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 1:14), Mary holds the living memory of Israel, the memory of Jesus, as his mother, and the memory of his new family of followers, for whom she exemplifies...

Revisiting the Healing Narrative of the Gospel in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In terms of health issues, Christians often refer to the stories of Jesus’ healings in the Gospels as an important spiritual resource. However, theological interpretations vary, depending on the hermeneutical method employed and the contextual factors considered. This article explores such approaches to the Gospels' healing narrative and relates them to the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the platform of practical theology, five theological approaches to the healing narrative are identified and then analyzed. The results of this study suggest that each approach has a degree of relevance that is worth developing to produce a theological contribution to ongoing mitigation and healing efforts.

Unveiling the Character Gallery of Sermons

In this article we examine the character gallery in a digitized corpus of 11,955 Danish sermons from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark written between 2011 and 2016. We study these sermons as a collective text production in which the characters represented illustrate aspects of Christian tradition and cultural history. We depart from the following questions: which characters populate Danish sermons, and what representations of biblical texts and history are displayed from the interrelations of these characters? In line with Bakhtinian thought we approach the sermonic character gallery as a polyphony of voices, and informed by the Deleuzian idea of the rhizome, we understand this character gallery as a network in which characters through their connections to other characters form clusters of thematic narratives. We represent this network through a social network analysis using computational tools, and closely analyse which characters are connected in the network’s sub-groups, and how. We find that biblical figures especially enhance stories of Jesus as saviour, teacher, or caretaker, while political figures tend to be dissociated from biblical figures and representing narratives of historical atrocities. In addition to these figures a large group of anonymized characters prevails.

The Last Christmas (La Última Navidad)

The Last Christmas (La Última Navidad)

An Encomium for Jesus: Luke, Rhetoric, and the Story of Jesus by Jerome H. Neyrey

Reviewed by: An Encomium for Jesus: Luke, Rhetoric, and the Story of Jesus by Jerome H. Neyrey Pablo T. Gadenz jerome h. neyrey, An Encomium for Jesus: Luke, Rhetoric, and the Story of Jesus (New Testament Monographs 40; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2020). Pp. vii + 222. £50/$65/€57.50. Distinguished NT scholar Jerome Neyrey is well known for his books and articles that argue that the authors of Matthew, John, and Hebrews followed Greco-Roman rhetorical conventions to communicate their message about Jesus in a way that their audiences would easily recognize. Similarly, in this monograph N. turns his attention to Luke's Gospel, considering it specifically through the lens of the rhetorical genre of encomium. The book is structured much like part 2 of N.'s earlier work on Matthew, Honor and Shame in the Gospel of Matthew (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998). In chap. 1, N. introduces the book's thesis, that Luke, having received an education in rhetoric (see N.'s appendix) by means of the compositional exercises of the progymnasmata (which taught various rhetorical genres including encomium), composed his Gospel narrative to give Jesus praise according to the encomium's conventional topics (see Michael W. Martin, "Progymnastic Topic Lists: A Compositional Template for Luke and Other Bioi?," NTS 54 [2008] 18–41). Subsequent chapters individually take up those topics: [End Page 331] origins (chap. 2); nurture and training (chap. 3); accomplishments, considered in terms of the four canonical virtues of wisdom (prudence), justice, courage (fortitude), and selfcontrol (temperance) (chaps. 4–7, respectively); and noble death (chap. 8). Each of these chapters reviews what the rhetorical handbooks (e.g., those of Theon, Hermogenes, Aphthonius) said about a topic and considers how Luke employed that topic in composing his Gospel. Regarding origins (chap. 2), N. argues that Luke, much like Matthew, finds praise for Jesus by presenting the conventional ideas of honorable birth (David's native city, Bethlehem), distinguished pedigree (house of David; genealogy), and special events at birth (angelic proclamation; prophecies). N. later clarifies that Luke's presentation is also unconventional in its inversion of values (see Luke 1:52). Regarding training (chap. 3), N. examines Luke's presentation of Jesus's precocious exchange with the temple teachers and his obedience to his parents (2:41–52). N. also discusses Luke's use of another progymnastic exercise, that is, syncrisis, in the comparison between John the Baptist and Jesus. All this analysis is useful, suggesting that at least for Jesus's birth and upbringing, the progymnastic topic lists influenced Luke's composition. In chaps. 4–7, N. turns to Jesus's public ministry (the topic of deeds), viewed through the lens of the cardinal virtues. Anticipating the objection that the vocabulary for these virtues is largely absent in Luke, he explains that audiences would naturally have labeled Jesus's actions as pertaining to individual virtues without Luke having to do so explicitly. Thus, Jesus demonstrates practical wisdom because he distinguishes good from bad (6:43–45), advises choosing actions that are advantageous in God's eyes (14:13–14), and utters wise proverbs (5:31). He is just because he fulfills his duties toward God (4:43) and teaches various forms of justice (6:20–49). He is courageous because he endures assaults from evil spirits (4:1–13) and speaks boldly to his attackers (11:42–52). He is self-controlled, despite insults to the contrary (7:34–35), since he exhibits no inordinate desires (e.g., for wealth [12:33] or honor [18:14]). These are the most innovative chapters of N.'s work, but they are likely the ones that will elicit the greatest skepticism. For such a long section of Luke's Gospel (4:14–21:38), it seems difficult to speak of a template (pp. 53, 58) given such general guidelines. Regardless, N. along the way offers insightful observations on Lucan passages and themes (e.g., the meal scenes [p. 148]). In chap. 8, N. explains that Jesus's death qualifies as noble because, though he was just (23:4, 47), he suffered voluntarily (22:42) for the benefit of others (24:47) and was uniquely vindicated after his death through his...

The Open Well as Symbol of the Meeting of Heaven and Earth

As an Indian artist working in the field of cross-cultural visual theology, I have taken the open well as a common feature of the landscape where I live as a motif that I can connect with the biblical story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well. This leads to a discussion around the symbolic significance of the water of life. The landscape provides natural elements that are both particular and local but also universal in their cultural significance. The meeting between the thirsty traveler, who is Christ the teacher, and a socially marginalized woman who comes to draw water in the midday heat provides the occasion for a dialogue in the context of asking for water. There is a similar story in the Buddhist tradition where Ananda, the disciple of Buddha, meets with an ‘outcaste’ woman at a well. Water, which is always found at a lowly place, becomes a symbol for the socially depressed. What is below must be lifted if the living water is to renew and transform the searcher. The encounter at the well can become the basis for a dialogue between religions concerning the need for social inclusion.

Isaac Transfigured: The Aqedah as Mashal in Matthean Midrash

This article combines intertextual and comparative midrashic approaches to argue that the story of Jesus's transfiguration in the Gospel of Matthew, understood in light of a set of concerted intertextual connections among Matthew, the story of Isaac's Aqedah in Genesis 22, and a number of parallel Jewish interpretive traditions, should be read as a proleptic passion narrative. By assessing the intertextual relationship between Matt 17:1–9 and Gen 22:1–19 LXX more thoroughly than has been done previously (particularly as regards the Greek form of the Aqedah) and by giving sustained attention to points of contact between Matthew's use of the Aqedah as a narrative explicating the life of Jesus and early Jewish midrashim interpreting the Aqedah in light of the history of Israel, I argue that the ancient story of Isaac functions according to the midrashic technique of the mashal.

Christianity as Distinct Practices: A Complicated Relationship by Jan-Olav Henriksen

Reviewed by: Christianity as Distinct Practices: A Complicated Relationship by Jan-Olav Henriksen Gordon A. Jensen Christianity as Distinct Practices: A Complicated Relationship. By Jan-Olav Henriksen. Rethinking Theologies: Constructing Alternatives in History and Doctrine 2. London: T & T Clark, 2019. vii + 206 pp. In this second volume of the Rethinking Theology series, religious studies scholar Jan-Olav Henriksen examines the strengths and weaknesses of defining Christianity by its distinct practices. His book is engaging, challenging, irritating, and affirming, exactly what one expects in a good book. Using a methodology common to current religious studies practices, Henriksen, a professor at both the MF Norwegian School of Theology and the University of Agder in Norway, defines religion by its practices. Theology, on the other hand, has defined Christianity since the Reformation by its beliefs or doctrines. These clusters of practices, Henriksen argues, give Christian communities their identity in the community and as individuals. The focus on practices, however, is not without its challenges. Tensions arise, since it creates complicated relationships between current practices in Christianity and their originating traditions, and [End Page 120] between practicing communities of faith and individuals. These tensions may also introduce friction between the disciplines of theology and religious studies. The focus of religious studies on practices and theology's focus on doctrine, however, do not resonate with theologians concerned with the experience and practice of faith in community. Likewise, comparative religion studies also examine teachings, and not just practices. The tension arising over the focus of these related, but distinct disciplines creates an even more complicated relationship. A significant portion of the book explores the practices that define Christianity, since many current adherents to Christianity would be hard pressed to define their tradition by its doctrines. What practices define Christianity, however? The practices must be identifiable as everyday practices recognizable to all its practitioners, but they must also mediate symbolic resources for the community through orientation, transformation, and legitimization. In the process, community identity is formed. This requires, however, that the practices transform, and not just reflect, everyday practices. Henriksen concludes that a purely external or practical evaluation of Christianity is not sufficient, since the observable practices of Christianity are often not very distinct from that of other religions or even those not affiliated with any form of religion but who are still concerned with community well-being. Moreover, practices and beliefs shape each other. Thus, for Christians, faith is shaped by a focus on the Jesus story, a story of orientation, transformation, and legitimization, as it is experienced within the framework of faith, hope, and love. Distinct Christian practices thus have as their source both ordinary life and Jesus' story. Henriksen provides a challenging examination of how Christianity is commonly defined. In this dialogue, however, words and ideas can appear as red flags until they are explained. One such red flag was waved in the sixteenth chapter on "how to practice God" (175ff). For theologians insisting on the distinction between the Creator and the creature, this is an irritating obstacle. While Henriksen helpfully explains the phrase in the rest of the chapter, the phrase also raises questions about whether "God" is simply a symbol, idea, or a personal identity. Such red flags inspire the reader [End Page 121] to engage in the text in ways that are most helpful for further discourse. This work is a helpful personal reminder that theologians need to read the works by scholars of religion, and vice-versa, to better understand the common obstacles faced. Henriksen helpfully provides a way to bridge some of the gaps between religious studies and theology, and between defining Christianity according to its practices or its beliefs. Gordon A. Jensen Lutheran Theological Seminary Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

MEMBERI KESAKSIAN TENTANG KEBENARAN DI TENGAH BUDAYA FEAR OF MISSING OUT: REFLEKSI TEOLOGIS YOH 18:28-40

This paper is a theological reflection of John 18:28-40. This theological reflection is used as a basic principle of living in the midst of the digital era, especially to fight the culture of fear of missing out (FOMO). This passage is part of the story of the passion of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of John, the story of Jesus before Pilate is dominated by Jesus’ dialogue with Pilate. In this dialogue, Jesus is shown as the King who proclaims the truth but Pilate rejects this testimony of Jesus. With a strong element of drama in the Gospel of John, the readers of the Gospel will be invited to believe that truth is God’s revelation that requires human participatory communication. The theological reflection that I want to emphasize is that dialogue with Jesus leads people to the depths to understand the mystery of God. But people who are caught up in FOMO have a shallow view of life. People who experience FOMO actually experience isolation and loneliness and then look for shortcuts. Deep dialogue with Jesus is necessary to gain spiritual strength to face isolation and loneliness in life.

Orality, gender and sacred texts in the context of tele-evangelism

In oral cultures such as (traditional) African cultures and the cultures that eventually produced the Christian Bible, women formed an integral part of the art of storytelling. In patriarchal cultures where the normativity of a male is taken for granted, once orality was tampered with by that which happens in the sphere traditionally reserved for men as in, for example, the introduction of literacy, the important role of women as storytellers, including the telling of the stories of Jesus of Nazareth (read: biblical discourse) gets tampered with by subordination and silencing amongst others. Whilst the participation of women in ordained ministry and the delivery of public biblical discourse still remains a challenge in many African ecclesiastical settings, the advent of the digital era (cf. tele-evangelism in this essay) is not necessarily helpful towards the affirmation of women, especially first ladies in the context of huge ministries and mega churches. Contribution: The present essay seeks to answer the following main question: If the intersection among orality, gender, sacred texts and biblical discourse are analysed in the context of the full participation of African Christian women, especially the wives of the ‘men of God’, which power dynamics regarding gender and biblical discourse can be unravelled?

The Gospel as Stories: A Narrative Approach to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

The Gospel as Stories: A Narrative Approach to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

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Not every research article manages to stay relevant for an entire century, remaining an object for discussion even one hundred years after its composition. In 1921–1922, an American Lukan scholar, and later professor of the New Testament at Harvard University, Henry J. Cadbury, published three articles about the Lukan preface. These articles, and in particular one of them, are still discussed among Lukan scholars today. The aim of my article is to highlight this achievement of Cadbury's. Cadbury was not the first to write about the Lukan preface. The preface had generally been interpreted as evidence that Luke was a historian, and that hisgospel was a result of historical research about the events relayed in the story of Jesus. Cadbury did not fully agree. While he agreed that Luke was a historian, he did not agree that what he wrote constituted historical research. Instead, Luke claimed to have himself been present and person­ally experienced at least some of the events that he relates in Luke–Acts, especially the "we-passages" in Acts of the Apostles. The purpose of his narrative was to defend Christianity against false reports and accusations. His experiences of and close contact with the course of events allowed him to do so. Of course, such a profiled understanding of Luke's pref­ace has caused much discussion and critique. I summarize contributions from three scholars: Ernst Haenchen, Loveday Alexander, and David P. Moessner. Following the interventions of these scholars, especially if we are listening to Moessner, the status quaestionis emerges that Luke was neither a reviewing historian nor an eyewitness but rather a well-informed tradent and interpreter of traditions with which he had been familiar for some time. Of course, Moessner does agree that Luke's preface operates within the framework of the historical genre, but the perfect participle παρηκολουθηκότιαρηκολουθηκότι ("having followed") in Lk. 1:3 does not mean "having investigated" but rather "having followed with the mind" or "having an informed familiarity with" all things that have happened. Thus, at least according to Moessner, Cadbury was both right and wrong.

A Mester és Margarita c. regény művészi világa

“The manuscripts don’t burn,” said Woland, the enigmatic Satan of Bulgakov’s novel. Bulgakov paints a suggestive picture of Moscow, the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, by means of satire, grotesque and fantasy. At all ages, it validly presents the personal offerings of historical tortures, the eternal problem of a man struggling between bounds, a caller, and an unbelieving, fluctuating man. The main characters in the novel are unforgettable: Woland, who is both Satan and a representative of higher justice; the Master, who became the eternal symbol of the Artist opposed to the machinery of power, and - novel in the novel - tells the story of Jesus in a peculiar way.

Good News about Resurrection

Abstract In this article, I will use an approach that draws on the study of narrative and metaphor to investigate Luke’s concept of the resurrection from the dead. I will focus on the story of Jesus’s resurrection as articulated in the second part of Peter’s Pentecost speech (Acts 2:22–36), giving special attention to the possible interpretations of the phrase lysas tas ōdinas tou thanatou/hadou (2:24), upon which the conceptualization of resurrection hinges. I will analyze two commonly articulated interpretations of this text’s multi-dimensional imagery and reflect on possible conceptual frameworks that support those interpretations. Then, I will offer two distinct ways of conceptualizing the resurrection from the dead based on my understanding of the phrase and its nuances that come from the context of labor. My goal is to give voice to this puzzling and underappreciated text and to expand possibilities for imagining it as good news.

Nimophulelani na umfazi: Ndiyindoda.

In 2019, the South African media put a spotlight on the brutal killings of women by men in the months of August and September. This femicide sparked conversations around masculinity which in turn spurred this article. Herein, I seek to investigate the space that will enable pastoral care to dialogue between Jesus’ masculinity and the masculinity of umXhosa men. This will be done through a comparison of Jesus’ words to the woman in Mark 14:6, which is included in the title of this paper, and the umXhosa word for masculinity, “ndiyindoda” (I am a man). The story of Jesus’ healthy masculinity as God will be linked to amaXhosa masculinity. The aim of this article is to ascertain whether pastoral care can serve as a channel between these two masculinities. The relational indigenous methodology will be employed through narrative pastoral care. In that, narrative enables one to hear people’s stories and link them to God’s story.

Casting Stones at Laws Cast in Stone – A Christotelic Narrative of Biblical Law Revealed Through a Story of Trauma, John 8:1-11

This paper examines the toxic capital offense texts requiring the death penalty for adultery delineated in the legal documents of the Old Testament in Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:20-22. The Mosaic Law is compared with the genre of other ancient Near East law codes. A narrative reading of these biblical laws is elucidated through the story of Jesus and the adulterous woman in John 8:1-11. A Christotelic, polyphonic interpretation of this account is used to reveal how Jesus interpreted those laws as a case law demonstration of his narratological legal hermeneutic of Matthew 5:27-28. Jesus upends the patriarchal purity culture of sacrificial religion, which traumatized the adulterous woman in this story through co-suffering solidarity with the victim while radicalizing the sin spectrum to include all sin and all people. As the fulfilment of the Law, Jesus subverted the purity system of law and replaced it with the “royal law” of love of God and compassionate love toward neighbour. Implications of all this for restorative community healing, relationally based therapeutic care, a positive role for the Church and a hermeneutical priority of love and compassion are then set out.

Becoming Pete Dawkins

Becoming Pete Dawkins Richard Goodman (bio) Sometime in the early 1980s, when I was living in New York City, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In those days, I went often. It was a sunny fall day. I climbed the familiar marble steps and walked into the main entrance hall. It's a vast space. It was, as it always is, crowded with humanity. There were uncountable scattered individuals, and there were groups. I looked about absently, trying to decide what part of the museum I would explore that day, at which point I would enter. I noticed a group directly in front of me. There were about fifteen people in the group, all of them, I could see, wearing name tags. For some reason, and now I wonder why, I walked closer to them. I saw that the tags read "Cranbrook School Alumni." My old prep school! Surprised, I looked to see if I recognized any of them. I did not. Then I heard a male voice. "Ok, let's go!" it said commandingly. I turned my eyes toward the voice. Instantly, I knew who it was. It was Pete Dawkins. The great Pete Dawkins, West Point graduate, football legend, all-around hero and Cranbrook School alumnus. I had studied his face so carefully so many times when I was at Cranbrook that even with the gray hair he had now, I knew it was him. That chieftain, that granite-hewn face! And it made sense, of course, that he was leading a group of alumni of the school he had once attended. [End Page 31] There he stood, the ultimate alumnus, leading the chosen few. What had they done to be part of this elite group? What had they promised? A personal tour by none other than the mythical Pete Dawkins. Just for an instant, I had the urge to walk up to him. I wanted to talk to him. I had some things I wanted to know about his time at Cranbrook. Did he know he had been used? Did he know he had been a lure? He raised an arm and waved the group forward, like the soldier he was. Then Pete Dawkins turned and began walking away, the group following eagerly behind him. I watched them move through the throng toward the heart of the museum, this gray-haired hero leading them. Very soon, they began to be swallowed up in the crowd. And then they vanished completely, as if they'd never been there. My heart was pounding. I turned and walked out of the museum, down the stone steps, and away from the throng, so I could breathe. ________ Cranbrook School for Boys. 1959. Football tryouts. I was fourteen. When I walked into the gymnasium, what I noticed first were framed photographs of athletes on the wall. The record of profiles stretched back to the 1930s. These were confident, All-American faces looking at me in black-and-white stoicism on the wall: "John Billings, Captain, Baseball, 1947–8." One after another. I searched for one photograph in particular each time I went into the gym. It was one every student athlete looked for. I scanned the photographs like a lost child looking for his mother. No, no, no. Yes. There. "Peter Dawkins. Football, All League. Captain, Baseball, 1955." Before I had been at Cranbrook School one week, a boy told me Pete Dawkins' story. The boy spoke as if he were telling me the story of Jesus. Pete Dawkins had polio when he was young. Polio! How it struck fear in the hearts of parents back then. They said he would never walk again. But Pete Dawkins didn't give up. Not only did he walk again, he became a star athlete [End Page 32] at Cranbrook. He went on to West Point, where he did astonishing things. He was an All-American football player. He won the Heisman Trophy. He was Brigade Commander, president of his class, and in the top 5 percent academically. No other West Point student in history had done that. All of this so recently! If that weren't enough, he was a Rhodes Scholar...

The Danger of Singular Saviors: Vulnerability, Political Power, and Jesus’s Disturbance in the Temple (Mark 11:15–19)

The story of Jesus’s disturbance in the temple as it is told in all four canonical gospels portrays Jesus as a singularly powerful figure against other powerful (mostly) men of his day. This way of telling the story obscures the presence of enslaved people, low-status women, and other vulnerable workers. This article argues that, in the disturbance, Jesus does little harm to those who owned money-changing tables or to the temple authorities economically or physically; rather, he harms the vulnerable workers at their tables. A reframing of the disturbance to center the perspectives of these often-marginalized groups reveals their political and theological savvy, which provides the strategic conditions for the protest.

The Ending of Luke Revisited

Many assume that the ending of Luke's Gospel, compared with the ending of Acts, is just not that interesting. In contrast, I argue, through narrative analysis and comparison with the ending of Acts, that the ending of Luke's Gospel reflects a profoundly sophisticated and nuanced kind of closure. The ending makes connections to the opening chapters, fulfills long-standing narrative expectations, offers resolution through eyewitness encounters with the risen Jesus, and closes with a scene of leave taking and blessing. Although the ending alludes to events yet to take place (in Acts), these features serve more to bridge the two volumes than to generate irresolution. Yet the two endings have real differences: Luke's Gospel narrates a departure for Jesus, whereas Acts does not clarify the fate of Paul. Acts 28 draws attention to unresolved tensions around salvation for Israel in ways Luke 24 does not. For these reasons, the ending of Luke's Gospel offers greater closure to the story of Jesus's earthly ministry than Acts does to the story of global witness. Whereas the story of Acts is one of beginnings (Acts 1:1), the story of Luke's Gospel is primarily one of things fulfilled (Luke 1:1, 4).