Abstract
Luke Timothy Johnson,
Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians
, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2011; 206 pp.: 9780802803900, £16.99/$23.00 (pbk)
Impassioned and exhilarating, with not a footnote in sight – this is a book to stimulate and challenge both preachers and congregations. Johnson is Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology, Emory University; and those who know Luke Johnson’s exegetical work (notably his Sacra Pagina commentaries on Luke and Acts) will recognize the meticulous scholarship that lies behind this study of the prophetic vision of Luke-Acts. But this is scholarship lightly worn, pared down to its essentials in order to maximize Luke’s ‘challenge to the contemporary church’, spelled out trenchantly at the end of each chapter.
Johnson offers five defining characteristics for understanding the prophetic dimension of Luke’s work (ch. 3). Prophecy is not so much about prediction, more a way of life: led by God’s Spirit; speaking God’s word; embodying God’s word; enacting God’s vision; and bearing witness in the face of opposition. Successive chapters trace these themes through the mission of Jesus (in Luke’s Gospel) and the life of the early Church (in Acts), ending with a robust and hard-hitting challenge to today’s Church. Johnson’s primary targets are North American: he is particularly hard on the ‘prosperity gospel’ which ‘has no connection with the prophetic vision and so obviously mimics the worst of an acquisitive society that measures worth by wealth’ (p. 95). But there is no room for complacency on this side of the Atlantic: ‘The spirit of competition and commodification characterize[s] contemporary churches whenever they think of success in terms of an expanded staff or elaborate programs or new buildings or expanded reputation rather than in terms of fruitfulness of life, faithful discipleship and constant conversion’ (p. 126). As a lay Catholic, he poses some tough challenges for his own tradition, but has equally shrewd observations on the Protestant churches: all churches, Protestant and Catholic alike, ‘need to ask themselves how their organizational structures actually hamper rather than facilitate obedience to the Holy Spirit’ (p. 128).
Not a comfortable read, then, but a good one – and an excellent basis both for individual and for group study. In emphasizing the prophetic dimension of Luke’s work, Johnson offers a valuable and timely corrective both to the dominant scholarly appraisal of Luke-Acts and to the life of the Church. My only slight regret is that this altogether laudable emphasis on the prophetic aspect of Luke’s ecclesiology might lead to a neglect of its priestly and kingly dimensions. Holiness (and the ‘awe and wonder’ it evokes) is integral to Luke’s portrayal of the Church (cf. Acts 5), and should not be set in opposition to ‘embracing the marginal’ (p. 147). And recognizing the need for the proper exercise of ‘kingly’ authority (as Jesus does in Luke 22) is a necessary prerequisite to naming and acknowledging its temptations and dangers. In the biblical tradition there is always a creative tension between the complementary roles of prophet, priest and king: holding the three together is the key to a rounded understanding both of Luke’s Christology and of his ecclesiology.