Theology

Laurie Brink

Soldiers in Luke-Acts

Engaging, Contradicting, and Transcending the Stereotypes

[Soldaten im lukanischen Doppelwerk. Stereotypen erfassen, bestreiten und überwinden.]

2014. XII, 222 pages.

Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 362

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ISBN 978-3-16-153163-7
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Published in English.
The literary stereotypes of soldiers found in Greco-Roman literature varied depending on their narrative location. The actions that heralded a soldier as a hero in the battlefield branded him as a bully on the home front. Laurie Brink demonstrates that the author of Luke-Acts skillfully engages, contradicts and transcends the stereotypes, in order to present the Roman soldier as an unexpected example of a good disciple.
The author of Luke-Acts constructs a portrait of the Roman military that relies on a variety of literary stereotypes, anticipating that his authorial audience, familiar with the stereotypes, will bring their experience to bear in the process of more fully characterizing the soldiers. Expecting their antipathy, Luke upsets his authorial audience's expectations. Laurie Brink demonstrates that the soldiers, in fact, do not wholly live up to their bad reputations. Engaging, contradicting and transcending the literary stereotypes, Luke creates a progressive portrait of the Roman soldier that demonstrates the attitudes and actions of a good disciple, and that serves as a critique of the authorial audience's original response.
Authors/Editors

Laurie Brink Born 1961; currently Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, IL and associate editor for The Bible Today.

Reviews

The following reviews are known:

In: Theologische Revue — 114 (2018), S. 174–175 (Christoph Stenschke)
In: Recherches de Science Religieuse (RSR) — 104 (2016), S. 253 (M. Rastoin)
In: The Polish Journal of Bibl. Research — 14 (2015), S. 219–220 (Zdzislaw J. Kapera)
In: Teologinen Aikakauskirja — 2016, Heft 1, S. 70 (Niko Huttunen)
In: The Bible Today — 2014, S. 243 (Donald Senior)
In: Review of Biblical Literature — http://bookreviews.org (10/2015) (Julia Snyder)
In: Religious Studies Review — 41 (2015), Heft 2, S. 43–51 (Michael Kochenash)
In: Soteria — 31 (2014), Heft 4, S. 44–45 (Jos de Heer)
In: Studien zum NT u.seiner Umwelt — 40 (2015), S. 177–179 (Christine Rajic)
In: Journal for the Study of the New Testament (JSNT) — 37.5 (2015), S. 51 (Dorothea H. Bertschmann)
In: New Testament Abstracts — 58 (2014), S. 578
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