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>> Today we want to both extend the way we think of Paul
by looking at the book of Acts, but also to begin to zoom
out from Paul, and to look at the apostles more broadly.
Acts is a unique book in the New Testament.
And I want you to think of it in terms of four themes.
Four themes that will help you understand the meaning
of this rich text.
One, its geographic frame; in Acts geography is theology.
The places, the "where" reveals the substance, the "what."
It's about the geography.
It's deeply symbolic.
Two, Acts is a history of the church, of the Apostolic Church.
The only history in the New Testament.
Third, Acts is the second volume of Luke, Luke-Acts,
they go together, written by the same person,
sharing the same themes, unified in their composition
so that things that happened in Luke reverberate in Acts,
and things that happened in Acts fulfill and enrich the things
that happened in Luke.
Just as Luke is the gospel of what?
What is Luke's emphasis?
>> How gentiles can be saved.
>> How gentiles can be saved, universal salvation.
So Acts is the story of universal salvation.
Fourth and finally, we want to think about Paul's citizenship,
Paul's status as a Roman citizen,
which is fascinating historically,
which is particularly important in a class that is meant
to study the origins of Christianity
from the perspective of Roman history,
which is truly essential
to Luke's message in the book of Acts.
Paul's Roman citizenship isn't a detail.
It has some truly revealing meaning.
Which armor is Acts?
>> A history.
>> A history.
Good. I want you to be even more specific.
Do you remember?
What is it?
>> A Romantic history.
>> Would you say it loud.
>> Romantic history.
>> See, some people listen to me.
Romantic history.
It's a Romantic history.
What does that mean, romance?
Well, it actually has quite a specific meaning.
The Roman Empire sees the birth of a new kind
of prose writing called the Romance, usually about a boy
and a girl who fall in love and get married
and live happily ever after.
It's truly romance.
But it's a broader genre of adventure writing,
adventure stories, dramatic, miraculous,
featuring heroes, adventurous.
So when we call it a Romantic history,
understand this isn't history like a history textbook.
Is not history like a dusty, old,
boring book on the shelf in the library.
It's a very literary, very Romantic history, adventurous.
It's about trials and adventures.
And we want to understand what that means.
It's about speeches, and it's about journeys.