1 - Introduction

Summary

Luke wanted to help his reader comprehend not only the events of the early church, but also the meaning of those events in the context of Hellenistic culture. When he moves from the world of data to the world of meaning, the reader is invited to contemplate the relationship of God to the world. Luke is not only a historian, but a theologian as well.

When the shift is made from ‘Luke the historian’ to ‘Luke the theologian’ the scope of Luke's contributions is greatly broadened; not only descriptive history, but apology and eschatology as well fall under the control of Luke's theology. Furthermore, all these interdependent elements form a complex, but unified, theology. For example, eschatology must be continually thought through in relation to ongoing history, and occasionally the circumstances of history force some of that thinking to take on apologetic qualities. And apology not only deals with present circumstance by recalling history, but should assist the faithful as they look with hope toward the future, the eschaton.

History, apology, and eschatology form interrelated components of Luke's theology. If history describes where the community has been and eschatology describes where it is going, then apology describes where the community is now. Apology locates the community in the inescapable realities of the present situation, and apology speaks to the community about its status in this situation, drawing on events of the past and visions of the future.