“Imaging the Divine: Idolatry and God’s Body in the Book of Acts.” New Testament Studies 65 (2019): 353-70. (original) (raw)
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Luke-Acts demonstrates a theological concern with Jesus as Redeemer of the outcasts (whether they be within Israel or Gentiles), and a literary concern with Greco-Roman modes of presentation. In both these respects, Luke-Acts is unique among the rest of the New Testament. In this paper, I review the specific Greco-Roman literary techniques that Luke-Acts exploits, as well as evidences of its theological concerns. Ultimately, in this paper I assert that the unique literary concern of Luke-Acts serves its unique theological concern: that is, the texts demonstrate Greco-Roman modes of artistic presentation, especially epic and epic history, in order to make a theological point about the universality of the Gospel message and the endless dominion of Jesus as King, as well as to present Christianity so as to be compelling to Gentiles.
The first inter-disciplinary and crossdisciplinary work of its kind, this book focuses on the importance of visual culture in the study of classical, Roman, and Christian Antiquity. It explores the role of the visual in helping to create a vision of the gods and how commitment to the visibility of the divine affected ancient religious practices, rituals, and beliefs. The essays deploy a wide range of disciplines that include archaeology, iconology, cultural studies, visual anthropology, the study of ancient rhetoric, and the cognitive sciences to consider the visual aspects of ancient religion from a variety of angles. The contributors take up the role of the visual in multiple contexts including domestic art, the imperial cult, martyrology, ritual practice, and temples. This book, which includes essays by classicists, Roman historians, archaeologists, biblical scholars, and scholars of ancient Christian iconography, promises to advance the discussion of the importance and role of visual culture in shaping the religions of Antiquity in significant new ways. This book encompasses three sections and a total of twelve chapters, preceded by an introduction and closed by an index.
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Though rarely mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the imago Dei has long been a key—if highly debated—theological concept for both the western and eastern church. An examination of the Hebrew text, especially Gen 1:26 and Ps 8:1,5, along with the historical, literary, and cultural contexts offers insight into the meaning of this important concept, which opens the Torah and sets the tone for the canon.