Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church

Chris introduced a book to me today by Luke Timothy Johnson,a catholic theologian
on the Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church.

The first chapter, The Literary Shape of Luke-Acts, 
deals with four things which Johnson deems needful in reading Luke-Acts as the author intended for it to be read. He will analyze four pieces of the corpus, material, stylistic, genre and structural shape.

The second chapter,The prophetic shape is different 
Johnson begins to discuss a deeper view of prophecy that the Evangelists employs - the actualization of character in that people in Luke-Acts share character traits of people in the Hebrew Scriptures.

The third chapter
The Character of the Prophet, focus on prophecy itself

The fourth through eighth chapter 

Detail the Prophetic Spirit discusses 

the words of the prophets, or rather, God and God's vision of humanity; 

The Prophetic Embodiment, in which the scholar looks at the prophetic character (of Jesus) in terms of poverty, itinerancy, prayer, and servant leadership; 

The Prophetic Enactment in which the Church stands in opposition to the World Order through actualization of the word; and finally, 

The Prophetic Witness in which Johnson considers as the culmination of the life of the Church the connection to "persecution and death."

On the whole,three assertions are made in the whole book of Luke-Acts :

• Reveals a prophetic vision of Jesus and the church,
• Fortells the prophetic challenge of Luke-Acts
• Provides an instructive and corrective guide

It achieves the above purpose by :

• first builds the case for Jesus as prophet,
• then for the early church as exercising the same role,
• finally challenges the contemporary church to exercise that same function.