Review in: Interpretation
2009 63: 192
Review door: Matthew
L. SkinnerGevonden op: http://int.sagepub.com/content/63/2/192.full.pdf+html
Acts
by J. Bradley Chance Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary. Smyth & Helwys, Macon, Ga., 2007.
562 pp. $60.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-57312-080-7.
OVER THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO in an
article in Interpretation, Paul Minear expressed a concern that the book of
Acts was becoming theologically unintelligible to American Christians.
Modernity and its robust skepticism made Luke's depiction of the
"persistent purpose of God" appear far-fetched to many; moreover,
assertions of providential design and accounts of apostolic signs and wonders
in Acts could "lead to supercilious rejection of both Luke and his early
readers" ("Dear Theo: The Kerygmatic Intention and Claim of the Book
of Acts," IntU.l [1973]: 150). Minear therefore summoned Interpretation's readers
to convene fresh theological conversations with Acts, conversations that
creatively mediate faithful dialogue between the people of God today and the
word of God, as Acts bears witness to it.
Although his commentary never refers to Minear, Bradley Chance seems
impelled by similar concerns. Chance, who teaches at Missouri's William Jewell
College, writes that his chief aim is to explore the theological contours of
Acts. For him, this means focusing on the story Luke tells, drawing insights
and lessons from the narrative depiction of God and God's activity among the
human participants in the drama. The commentary is less about deducing Luke's
theological or kerygmatic agenda for his time and more about fashioning a
creative engagement with a scriptural account of God and God's agents in a way
that attends to both the text and twenty-first century Western worldviews.
Chance therefore frequently highlights aspects of
Acts that raise questions about relating the divine will and human freedom.
When God orchestrates events either obtrusively or subtly—ranging from Philip's
strange encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch to Paul's custody as an opportunity
to bear witness in Rome—Chance presses readers to understand God as
participating within the world as a party to its history. Incorporating
proposals from process theology and open theism, he finds Acts especially
congenial to views that set providential design and human participation in a
creative, integrated tension. Quoting Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, whom he cites
often, Chance asserts, "God works with the world as it is in order to
bring it to where it can be" (p. 439). His exegesis takes aim at
simplistic and overbearing understandings of divine sovereignty that hold sway
in many popular readings of Acts. These are the same kinds of understandings
that make Acts problematic for other readers, and that are easily overwhelmed
by the modernist skepticism that Minear identified. Most impressive is Chance's ability to make his theological case
in language that nonspecialists will find thoroughly accessible.
This accessibility is a main feature of the growing Smyth 8c
Helwys Commentary series. Directed toward students and churchgoers willing to
dive into a hefty volume, the commentary does not assume its readers possess
more than a little knowledge of the relevant first-century historical context
and the terminology of critical biblical scholarship. Sidebars, printed in
contrasting color and font and sprinkled throughout the text, provide
additional information on linguistic matters, historical backgrounds, and
interpretive questions. The series preface insists that this contributes to a
"user-friendly" layout for a "visual generation." What some
users find amicable, however, others nevertheless may experience as
distracting.
The
Smyth & Helwys format requires Chance to separate "commentary" on
a section of biblical text from "connections" he draws between the
text and the contemporary church. While the "commentary" sections
provide a competent and thorough overview of the Acts narrative, they do not
enter into explicit conversation with a wide range of other interpreters. The
sparse endnotes and numerous sidebars (perhaps an effort to maintain a
"user-friendly" resource), direct readers to only a limited amount of
secondary sources, mostly Bible dictionaries and a small sampling of
comprehensive commentaries that are at least ten years old (commentaries by
Joseph Fitzmyer, Luke Timothy Johnson, John Polhill, and Ben Witherington
receive the most attention). Some pivotal interpretive issues that could
intrigue many students of Acts are simply underdeveloped. For example, there is
little sustained attention given to the sociopolitical consequences of the
gospel in various cultural settings, particularly as portrayed in Acts 16-19.
Also, Chance's consistent claim, echoing Ernst Haenchen and others, that Luke
portrays Christianity as nonthreatening to Roman interests, is more assumed
than demonstrated.
To add substance to his exposition, Chance reads the Acts
narrative in light of other material from the first-century world, including
the Pauline corpus. Although he occasionally notes the difficulties in
reconciling the messages of Luke and Paul, for the most part Chance finds
complementarity if not consistency between their theological claims.
Considering the theology of Acts in concert with the book's literary and
historical facets, Chance explains how Luke could have exercised certain
creative freedom and still been a legitimate historian, but he usually abstains
from issuing his own opinions in debates about the historical veracity of the
events Luke depicts. He clearly states that weighing in on those debates is not
his aim, and he rightly regards most of them as dependent on speculation
determined by an interpreter's theological and methodological presuppositions.
Still, the commentary often must acknowledge specific exegetical controversies
concerning history or Luke's possible use of sources. When it does so, it
briefly cites voices from opposing perspectives, showcasing only
hyper-credulity (usually represented by Ben Witherington) and hyper-skepticism
(Gerd Lüdemann often fills this role), and then drops the matter. Such an
approach may be efficient, but it is akin to watching the old CNN show Crossfire:
one finds nearly polarized opinions but is hardly invited either to
appreciate the nuances of the issues on the table or to grasp their
implications.
Chance reserves the right to
remain noncommittal on many historical matters in order to keep the commentary
concentrated on its main aim. He is hardly unaware that the narrative and
theology of Acts exist amid questions of historiography and genre,
considerations of the first-century social milieux, and the book's long reception
history. Although the commentary de-emphasizes those topics to facilitate a
creative engagement with the God and gospel of Acts, it would be a loss were
some readers to conclude that historical considerations have little bearing on
the theology of a biblical narrative. Perhaps an unstated intention also guides
Chance's commentary: to divert readers from getting locked into an exegetical
task that possesses merely penultimate value yet captivates many interpreters,
namely, assessing the degree to which Acts reflects tendentiousness as a report
of ancient history.
Because they are the commentary's
most noteworthy feature, Chance's theological proposals are the rightful focus
for any evaluation of his book. He deserves credit for taking seriously the
challenge of describing for a broad range of readers how Acts might inform
Christian faith, piety, and ministry today. As mentioned, the working out of
God's purposes is a prominent and thoughtful piece of Chance's theological
discussions. The "connections" section of each chapter draws
theological lessons from Acts around other topics such as the inclusion of
women in the life and leadership of churches; the nature of Christian devotion,
character, and obedience; the task of bearing witness to nonbelievers; the
practice of baptism and its connections to the Holy Spirit; and the ways in
which people respond to the call of God. Although each of these issues pertains
to a wide variety of faith communities, taken together, they suggest a
particular concern for a Baptist milieu, perhaps the context of the
commentary's intended audiences.
Also worth noting is Chance's reading of the
relationship in Acts between the adherents of the gospel and those Jews who
reject or oppose it. As seen especially in the commentary's attentive
discussion of Acts 13, Chance associates this aspect of the story with accounts
of Gentiles who respond positively to the gospel. In all cases, among all
audiences, the gospel encounters mixed and sometimes unexpected reactions. When
Acts includes harsh judgments to or about Jewish characters, it does not
denounce Judaism as a whole but calls out the specific "characters who
embody the kind of exclusive spirit that resists the universal gospel" (p.
419). Even the ending, including Paul's words to the Jews of Rome, underscores
this mixed reaction. For Chance, this is nothing new, for the story of God
throughout Scripture is fraught with instances of resistance and rebellion.
But, again in Acts, even as God's representatives scold this opposition, God
remains ever faithful.
Chance's commentary, therefore,
pursues many of the weighty theological questions that Acts can raise for
contemporary believers. It will be a helpful resource for Christian readers and
communities who seek continuity between their experiences of faith and Luke's
high-spirited story of the early church.
Matthew L. Skinner
LUTHER
SEMINARY
SAINT
PAUL, MINNESOTA
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