On the Road Encounters in Luke-Acts

Contemporary reconstructions of Luke's theology of the Way should include in a more conscientious manner the contribution of Luke's post-Easter ""on the road"" encounters (the Emmaus, Gaza, and Damascus road narratives). This book argues that Luke follows here the rules of Hellenistic mimesis (imitation), many of which are illustrated in the novels, dramas, and history treatises of his time. Filtering these rules through his own theology and literary taste, he represents, in the end, the history and the proclamation of the early church, in an attractive and challenging manner, inviting his readers to good literature and to captivating spiritual experiences. ""Octavian Baban helpfully explores Luke's theology of journeying in relation to his literary style. He convincingly demonstrates Luke's literary artistry, especially in his skilfull utilization of Hellenistic models. His detailed study of three related journey stories in Luke-Acts throws fresh light both on the individual stories and on their contribution to Luke's overall motif of the Way."" --Andrew Clark is a Comminssioning Editor at Scripture Union ""Imaginative ideas backed by careful and wide-ranging scholarship. Highly commended."" --Conrad Gempf, London School of Theology, UK ""Octavian Baban offers a fresh understanding of Luke's theology of journeying in Luke-Acts. Through wide-ranging analysis of Luke's narrative style, Baban challenges aspects of contemporary scholarship in this area. He shows that Luke's literary techniques reflect Greco-Roman mimesis and from this draws out the philosophical and artistic implications in Luke's writing. This captivating book, clearly written and strongly argued, is an important contribution to the study of Lukan theology, while also providing an incentive and a challenge to contemporary Christian proclamation of the Gospel."" --Ian Randall, Spurgeon's College, London, UK Octavian D. Baban is New Testament lecturer at the Baptist Theological Institute, Bucharest, and at the Bucharest State University, Romania, a Baptist minister, and an active member of the Translation Committee of the Romanian Bible Society. Born by the Black Sea, he studied physics (BA, MASc) and, after the communist regime fell in 1989, he turned decisively to his earlier love of the Scriptures (BA in Biblical Theology and PhD at the London Bible College, Brunel University). He has published university textbooks on New Testament introduction and New Testament Greek. He is married with two children.