Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary Portland Seminary 2010 Luke Kent Yinger Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/gfes Part of the Religion Commons 438 MaxLucado Bernard Lonergan's insightful theological writings con­ make the list in 2004. In the early twenty-first century, tinue to challenge theologians and philosophers to strive his books, DVDs, and other materials have continued for methodological clarity in their writings. to garner awards not only in Christian publishing but in the secular world as well. Lucado's popularity and rec­ Bibliography ognition soared. Market research done by his publish­ Lonergan, Bernard. Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. ing company in 2004 revealed that one in ten Americans San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978. Originally published as had read a book by Max Lucado, and among people liv­ Insight: A Study ofHuman Understanding. London: Longmans, ing in the United States, Lucado's name recognition was Green and Co. and New York: Philosophical Library, 1957. second only to Billy Graham among spirituality/inspi­ --. Method in Theology. New York: The Seabury Press, 1972. rational authors. A Christianity Today article in 2004 --. A Second Collection. Philadelphia: The Westminster referred to Lucado as ''America's Pastor;' and Reader's Press, 1974. Digest named him ''America's Best Preacher" in its May --. A Third Collection. New York: Paulist Press, 1985. Tracy, David. The Achievement of Bernard Lonergan. New York: 2005 issue. Hallmark also began issuing a line of inspi­ Herder and Herder, 1970. rational greeting cards bearing messages from Lucado in -HENRY L. CARRIGAN JR. the early twenty-first century. All of his accomplishments garnered Lucado a resolution of congratulations in the Texas House of Representatives. MAX LUCADO (1955-). An inspirational author and At the beginning of the new millennium there were more minister, Max Lucado grew up in the West Texas town of than forty million Max Lucado books in print in multiple Andrews as the youngest of four children. He attended languages throughout the world. His success is founded on college at Abilene Christian University, a school affili­ his ability to tell stories within his works that evoke emo­ ated with the Churches of Christ (spiritual descendants of tional experiences in readers that are meant to draw indi­ Alexander Campbell). Originally planning to be a lawyer viduals closer to God. His publishing numbers suggest that or to become involved in politics, Lucado decided to go for millions of people he has accomplished that task. into missions. After a graduate degree, Lucado prepared -TODD M. BRENNEMAN to be a missionary by working in ministry for two years in Miami. During his years there, Lucado developed col­ umns for the church bulletin that eventually became his LUKE (GK. AouKCi.<; [LOUKAS]) (first century CE). first book, On the Anvil. Nationality unknown. 1he only occurrences of the name After two years in Miami, Lucado and his wife, Denalyn, Luke in the New Testament come in Paul's letters, where moved to Brazil to be missionaries. While there Lucado Luke is the apostle's traveling companion and a physician started a church while crafting On the Anvil. Fourteen of (Col 4:14; 2 Tim 4:11; Phlm 24; cf. also 2 Cor 8:18). Some the publishers Lucado sent the manuscript to rejected it. see the same person in Lucius (Rom 16:21) and Lucius Eventually it was published by Tyndale House. 'The death of Cyrene (Acts 13:1). The New Testament's third gospel of Lucado's father in 1987 brought Lucado and his family, and the book of Acts are anonymous but are traditionally which now included children, back to the United States ascribed to the Luke of Paul's letters; this traditional Luke and San Antonio. In San Antonio, Lucado became the is the subject of this article. minister for what was then called the Oak Hills Church of Apart from competing early church traditions, little Christ (the "of Christ" was eventually dropped). He also is known about him. The two-volume work, referred to continued working on his writing. Lucado's books were as Luke-Acts, suggests an author with a good mastery published about one every eight months. of Greek language, rhetoric, and culture. If a physician, In 1992 Lucado began writing children's books. Some­ he probably "belonged to the middle or higher plane of times these books related to books he had written for contemporary culture" (Harnack, Luke the Physician, 13). adults. Others were new creations. In 2003 Lucado began Most consider him a Gentile, though Jewish origin also a series of books and videos concerning a character he finds supporters (cf. Paul's "kinsman" Lucius, Rom 16:21). created called Hermie. Hermie, "a common caterpillar:' By at least the sixth century Luke was viewed as a painter, has appeared in several books and videos including char­ and in Roman Catholic tradition he is the patron saint of acters voiced by famous actors, such as Tim Conway and painters. Don Knotts. In the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York Publications City, Lucado's book Traveling Light made it onto the The Gospel according to Luke, dated by many to some­ New York Times' Bestseller List, the first of his books to where between 70 and 90 CE, is the longest of the four do so. A subsequent book, It's Not about Me, would also canonical gospels and probably drew from Mark's gospel Martin Luther 439 and other sources. Lukan authorship of the third gospel to Luke. Some have also theorized that Luke planned a (and of the book of Acts) is still the subject of consider­ third volume to follow Acts. able debate among New Testament scholars but will be assumed in this article. TI1e third gospel's word choice and Influence on Christian Literature sentence style give it a more literary ring than most other Luke-Acts together constitute 28 percent of the New New Testament documents, and its first four verses sound Testament, making Luke the author of more of the New like the prefaces of other Hellenistic histories. Testament than either Paul or John. Both the gospel and Acts root early Christianity in secular history ("In the Josephus, Against Apion, fifteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius;' Luke 3: 1 NRSV) Luke 1:1-4 NRSV Book I.l and helped to prepare the movement for a longer-term Since many have under­ In my history of our stay on earth (presenting Jesus "as inaugurating a new taken to set down an Antiquities, most excel­ era in human existence") (Fitzmyer, The Gospel Accord­ orderly account of the lent Epaphroditus, I have, ing to Luke, 1.145). The first known Christian history, the events that have been ful­ I think, made sufficiently book of Acts, spawned a number oflater "acts;' such as the filled among us, just as they dear to any who may Acts of Peter or Acts of Paul (late second century). Luke's were handed on to us by peruse that work the emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit in the church and those who from the begin - extreme antiquity of our individual Christian lives has been taken up by numerous ning were eyewitnesses and Jewish race .... Since, Christian traditions, as has his special notice of marginal­ servants of the word, I too however, I observe that ized peoples. Luke's parable of the prodigal son has been decided, after investigating a considerable number highly influential in Western culture (an errant child who everything carefully from of persons ... discredit returns to her senses can be termed a "prodigal" without the very first, to write an the statements in my further explanation) as well as in art (Rembrandt's The orderly account for you, history ... , I consider it Prodigal), literature, and preaching. Nevertheless, Luke's most excellent Theophilus, my duty to devote a brief gospel never rivaled Matthew's in popularity (except in so that you may know the treatise to all these points; Marcion's canon). truth concerning the things in order at once to ... about which you have been instruct all who desire to Bibliography instructed. know the truth concerning A reconstructed Greek text of the gospel and Acts can be the antiquity of our race. found in Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th ed. (Stuttgart: 1993). Among the many good introductions to the issues Among the unique elements of this gospel are the infancy of Luke's identity and authorship of gospel and Acts, see narratives and hymns, the story of the twelve-year-old An Introduction to the New Testament by Raymond E. Jesus in the temple, a large journey narrative (9:51-18:14), Brown (Doubleday, 1997) or the classic presentation of and numerous parables and other stories (e.g., prodigal the traditional view in Adolf von Harnack, Luke the Physi­ son, Emmaus road disciples), especially stories about per­ cian (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1907). For imaginative recon­ sons marginalized in first-century Jewish society (a tax structions of Luke as a person and author, one could read collector Zacchaeus, women, Gentiles). Graham C. Hunter, Luke, First Century Christian (Harper, The book of Acts (or the Acts of the Apostles), dated also 1937) or A.H. N. Green-Armytage, A Portrait of St. Luke by many to the last quarter of the first century CE, gives (Chicago: 1955). a selective history of the early Jesus movement from the - KENT L. YING ER postresurrection appearances (ca. 30 CE) to the imprison­ ment of the apostle Paul in Rome (61-63 CE?). The work appears to incorporate journal entries, perhaps those of MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546).