The ninth volume in this series deals with the second part of Luke€™s the Acts of the Apostles. In this diverse collection, Janice Capel Anderson, James Arlandson, Virginia Burrus, Karen Torjesen, Beverly Gavanta, Musimbi Kanyoro, Dennis MacDonald, Shelly Matthews, Todd Penner, Caroline Vander Stichele, Robert Price, Barbara Reid, Scott Spencer, Jeffrey Staley, and Kathy Chambers utilize a variety of approaches to address issues of ethnicity and class, economic and social status, speech and silence, comedy and tragedy, construction of masculinity, mission and post-colonial response, literary influences both behind and in front of the text.
Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Department of Jewish Studies. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi; four children's books (with Sandy Sasso); The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III); and The Jewish Annotated New Testament (co-edited with Marc Z. Brettler). Her most recent books are The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (co-authored with Marc Z. Brettler), Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven; and The Kingdom of Heaven: 40 Devotionals. In 2019 she became the first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute. Professor Levine, who has done over 300 programs for churches, clergy groups, and seminaries, has been awarded grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Institutions granting her honorary degrees include Christian Theological Seminary and the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest.