An appreciative and critical response to C. Kavin Rowe’s World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age which identifies two significant questions. First, does Rowe over-simplify matters by presenting the church in Acts as a threat to ‘pagan culture’? Secondly, is the issue for Luke whether the Christian movement is politically ‘seditious’ or, more broadly, whether it fosters criminal activity? On both counts, does Rowe exaggerate the ‘tension’ he detects in Acts?
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