Customer Reviews

The Way According to Luke: Hearing the Whole Story of Luke-Acts

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Way According To Luke: Hearing The Whole Story Of Luke-Acts by Paul Borgman (Professor of English, Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts) is a narrative study of the classic Greek and Jewish literary tale elements of the New Testament Gospel of Luke and Book of Acts. As Professor Borgman insightfully explores the historical complexities of these biblical narratives, The Way According To Luke deftly guides readers through the two-part drama with its principal focus on the mission of Jesus and his apostles through attention to the use of repetition, patterns and other oral narrative particulars as the scriptures were originally intended to be read and understood by the early Christian community. The Way According To Luke is very highly recommended for all biblical students as a concise introduction and in-depth, academically sound, historical and theological study of the works of Luke which have been influential in the Christian movement from its very beginnings down to the present day.

This is Paul Borgman's second volume to which he brings a literary approach to the text of Scripture.

The first volume dealt with Genesis, this one wanders into the NT and deals with the two works of Luke as a unitary whole, seeing many theological/literary connections embedded throughout both works.

Borgman's literary approach brings nothing fancy to the interpretation of Luke-Acts and is none the worse for this.

He has not contrived to be obtuse like some literary critics who deal with the text of Scripture, and always keeps the reader and text foremost.

Those who are used to the standard verse by verse commentaries may, on the surface, find this one hard going as this does not belong to that Genre, but Borgman does a wonderful job of bringing out the theological flow of the Luke -Acts and highlights connections that most commentaries in other genres leave out.

Care of course must be taken when writers say they are approaching the Scripture as a Literary work.

Oftentimes this means that issues of Historicity are merely pushed aside in favour of dealing with the text as a literary work, which in turn means the commentator doesn't believe that it is historically accurate in what it claims.

Borgman appears cautious in this, and there is nothing amiss that I could see that would give one pause for thought in this respect.

Of particular interest and delight to me was his dealing with the disciples question in Acts1:6.

Borgmans does not gloss over the difficulty by spiritualizing it away, but simply states that the question was a valid one and draws no rebuke from Jesus, unlike most commentators old and new who say the disciples question was a result of their ignorance.

One strange omission occurs in his bibliography.

The name of David Gooding who has written volumes on Luke and Acts dealing with the thought flow of the texts and pre-dates Borgman's approach by a number of years is not even mentioned.

Considering that Gooding's works can be classed in the same Genre as Borgman's this is a strange lacuna indeed.

All in all this is a worthwhile purchase

This is a good read. Genesis was a great read so it is a hard compare. Don't let that stop you, though.