The Hermeneutics of Social Identity in Luke-Acts

Luke-Acts presents a vision of the kingdom of God and the early church in a program of decentralization, that is, a movement away from the centralized power structures of Judaism. Decentralization of the temple, land, purity laws, and even the people that seem to possess the power early in Acts (i.e., Peter and the other apostles) makes room for a move of radical inclusion. Luke demonstrates the Holy Spirit as the prime initiator of outward expansion of the kingdom of God, radically including an