Body and Character in Luke and Acts: The Subversion of Physiognomy in Early Christianity - Softcover

"Not many books really break new ground. This one does. Parsons cast Luke's descriptions of the bent woman, Zacchaeus, the lame man, and the Ethiopian eunuch in a new light and shows how the gospel radically challenges cultural conventions and speaks a word of grace." --Alan Culpepper, Dean, McAfee School of Theology "Parsons trains his eagle eye on details missed by most scholars. The results are fascinating and unexpected, throwing fresh light on attitudes to bodily characteristics in Luke's day before bringing us back to our world with a theological jolt." --Graham Stanton (1940-2009) was Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge "With a stunning command of both ancient sources and contemporary scholarship, Parsons offers a trove of fresh insights on physically challenged figures in Luke and Acts. Readers of this carefully argued work will never look at the bent woman, the diminutive Zacchaeus, the lame man (Acts 3), and the Ethiopian eunuch the same way again. Deformed bodies (by conventional standards) pose no barriers to transformed character through dynamic encounters with the Lukan Jesus and his emissaries. Such experiences mount a poignant resistance to prejudicial and superficial profiling in Luke's day--and ours." --F. Scott Spencer, Professor of New Testament, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond

Early Christianity developed in a world where moral significance was often judged based upon physical appearance alone. Exploring the manifestations of this ancient "science" of physiognomy, Parsons rightly shows how Greco-Roman society, and by consequence the author of Luke and Acts, was steeped in this tradition. Luke, however, employs these principles in his writings in order to subvert the paradigm. Using as examples the bent woman (Luke 13), Zacchaeus (Luke 18), the lame man (Acts 3-4), and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8), Parsons shows that the Christian communityaboth early and present-dayais established only in the image of Jesus Christ.