Acts of the Apostles. Mission and Ethics in its history of interpretation

The course will begin with input and discussion on the themes of Mission and Ethics, as well as an introduction to Acts. Each week there will be a consideration of a passage from Acts in light of the joint topic of ‘Mission and Ethics’-how do they relate within these texts? The passages from Acts will be chosen according to their featuring this question and will be examined in light of modern commentaries and linguistic and historical aids, before moving to consider a range of selected commentators on Acts through the centuries: all these will be made available in English translation as basic. Reading of primary sources (commentaries both pre-modern and modern) will be emphasised, along with their interpretive and creative moves, but there will also be the opportunity and responsibility of getting familiar with some of the major recent scholarship on the book, not least the theological and ideological tendencies of Luke and the question of how this biblical book serves to offer an apology for the church of Paul and the other Apostles. The matters of theological interpretation, theology of history, missio Dei, communal and ‘evangelistic’ ecclesial ethics and reception-history as an appropriate method.