Karl Allen Kuhn - The Kingdom According to Luke and Acts: A Social, Literary, and Theological Introduction

W e are blessed to be living in a time and place with such abundant resourcesacademic, traditional, and communalfor deepening our collective and individual understandings of Scripture. My hope is that the work to follow might contribute something meaningful to the rich dialogue from which it emerges and to which it owes its existence. In particular, I have benefited greatly over the last decade from the insights of colleagues participating in the social-scientific criticism task force of the Catholic Biblical Association. Our study together has enriched my own engagement with Scripture and sowed seeds that germinate in the thoughts offered here. I have also learned much from students participating in my Luke-Acts seminar, especially the spring 2013 cohort, which read and commented on drafts of several chapters. In addition to the assistance provided by these colleagues and students, three individuals served as my readers for earlier versions of the manuscript: Fred Kramer, Kristal Klemme, and Kim Thimmig. To them I owe much appreciation for their generous gift of time, encouragement, careful reading, and insight. Lakeland librarian Joe Pirillo graciously and ably processed numerous interlibrary loan requests, making my research much easier from our setting in rural Wisconsin. I am grateful to Mark Allan Powell for his suggestion to pursue Baker Academic as the publisher and his advocacy on behalf of the project. I also deeply appreciate Baker Academic for their commitment to this study and for their congenial professionalism, especially that of editors James Ernest and Tim West, who ably shepherded the project through the various stages of publication and offered many suggestions that have improved it.

I also give thanks for the many blessings I receive in my ministry of teaching and learning at Lakeland College. As a college of the United Church of Christ with an undergraduate program in religion, Lakeland has granted me many opportunities to shape my understanding of Scripture and faith in conversation with students, colleagues, and members of the wider church community. Finally, I give thanks for my wife, Rev. Kathryn Kuhn, to whom this volume is dedicated in appreciation for her ongoing witness to Gods Kingdom as a minister of the church, and for our children, Joshua and Clare, whose support and love in this and many other endeavors are a source of tremendous blessing and joy.