Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This essay discusses the argument of C. Kavin Rowe, World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age by engaging with criticisms and comments by Matthew Sleeman and John Barclay. The response accepts several key points, including the locatedness of the early believing communities, the place of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and the importance of heaven for the early Christians. The response also clarifies and defends the view of Christianity’s cultural subversiveness and political engagement implied in Acts, as well as the claim that ‘tension’ is the right interpretive vocabulary needed to grasp the Christian political stance(s) in Acts.

Keywords

Acts Christian(s)Rome politics law church

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ando, Clifford 2000 Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire ( Berkeley: University of California Press).

Barclay, John 2011 ‘Pushing Back: Some Questions for Discussion’ , JSNT 33.3: 321-26.

Havel, Václav 1986 ‘The Power of the Powerless’, in his Living in the Truth (London: Faber & Faber ).

Lane Fox, Robin 1986 Pagans and Christians (New York: Knopf).

O’Donovan, Oliver 1996 The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Rives, James B. 1995 Religion and Authority in Roman Carthage ( New York: Oxford University Press).

2007 Religion in the Roman Empire (London: Blackwell).

Rowe, C.K. 2009 World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press ).

Sleeman, M. 2009 Geography and the Ascension Narrative in Acts ( SNTSMS, 146; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

10.

2011 ‘The Vision of Acts: World Right Way Up’, JSNT 33.3: 327-33.

Reading World Upside Down: A Response to Matthew Sleeman and John Barclay

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References