Book Notice: The Story Luke Tells

Justo L. Gonzalez

The Story Luke Tells: Luke’s Unique Witness to the Gospel
Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015.
Available at Amazon.com

Justo Gonzalez, known for his works on church history, turns his hand to the first church historian, St. Luke. This is a short and quaint little book on Luke-Acts which touches on some interesting areas:

Luke and the History of Humankind
Luke and the History of Israel
Luke and the Great Reversal
Luke and Gender
Luke and Salvation
Food and Drink in Luke’s Theology
Luke and Worship
Luke and the Holy Spirit

It is a good book for beginners, like an adult Sunday school class, or perhaps even college undergrads. It is has no footnotes and no scholarly interactions, but is a simple, easy, and informative read about key motifs in Luke-Acts. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on “Luke and the Great Reversal” and “Food and Drink in Luke’s Theology” which shows just how important those themes are in Luke-Acts and why we should remember them. The chapter on gender was okay, though a fuller account of Luke and women can be found in Scott Harrower’s and Greg Forbes’ book Raised from Obscurity. In sum, short and sweet, but if you want something meatier, try Darrell Bock on A Theology of Luke and Acts.