Abstract
Darrin Snyder Belousek's book Good News: The Advent of Salvation in the Gospel of Luke offers a refreshing discussion of key theological motifs in the Gospel of Luke. As Belousek explains, “This book explores that larger meaning of salvation … in Luke's Gospel” (p. x). In doing this, the author consciously distances himself from “the standard scholarly methods of historical, form, or literary criticism” (p. xii), and instead, he focuses on the text alone, with attention to how it speaks to audiences today. The book is arranged topically, with each chapter devoted to the exploration of a different theological theme that connects to Luke's vision of salvation. These theological themes often betray Belousek's own Anabaptist-Mennonite roots as he frequently notes the presence of peace motifs throughout the text.
The book's first two chapters situate Luke within the context of prophetic passages from the Hebrew Bible that predict future times of salvation. Here, the author emphasizes that visions of salvation include corporate experiences, not merely personal ones. Similarly, chapter 2 explores prohibitions of fear in the early chapters of Luke (cf. Luke 1:13, 30; 2:10). Belousek connects the proclamation “do not fear” to prophetic consolation texts from the Hebrew Bible as well as to a similar caution about worry elsewhere in Luke (12:22–31). While these chapters are helpful insofar as they set a precedent for understanding what Luke might be doing in the Gospel, Belousek neither outlines criteria for determining where echoes of the Hebrew Bible appear nor explains in a systematic way how Luke may be making use of such passages. More attention to the specific workings of the intertextual relationships that he is trying to establish would have been helpful here.
The third chapter explores Luke's presentation of salvation in connection with faith and healing. Here, Belousek focuses on the accounts of the healings of the paralyzed man (5:17–26), the centurion's slave (7:1–10), the bleeding woman (8:42–48), and the blind man (18:35–43). In each of these cases, the author contends that the healed individual's expression of faith contributes to the healing that they receive.
Chapter 4 examines the place of repentance within Luke's vision of salvation beginning with John the Baptist's call to repentance (3:8). Again, the author connects the message in Luke to similar calls for repentance within the Hebrew Bible. As in chapter 1, here, too, he makes special note of the way in which a concept (in this case, repentance) functions at a communal level rather than only at an individual level. Through this practice of repentance, then, he suggests that Luke is helping his audience to pave the way for salvation. The work of repentance, he. posits, leads naturally to the practice of justice (especially economic justice and nonviolence) which is the topic of the fifth chapter. Belousek's own theological predilections are evident here as he focuses on particularly Anabaptist theological emphases, and he even moves beyond the text itself to connect these ideas to the life of Martin Luther King.
Chapter 6 explores the concept of offering praise and worship as a response to salvation. Here, the author highlights the more political elements of the Gospel insofar as “‘Glory to God!’ supplants ‘Hail Caesar!’” (p. 81). Belousek understands the practice of praise as being connected to the experience of freedom, especially a corporate freedom that transcends a merely personal level. he again moves beyond the text itself to consider the concept of freedom in connection to the abuses suffered by those caught up in the United States’ system of mass incarceration as well as the movement toward freedom evident in Martin Luther King's life.
The book's final chapter connects the idea of salvation with that of mission. The author suggests that the natural response to the salvation that one encounters in Luke's Gospel is to proclaim that message broadly. This proclamation, for Belousek, is connected with the roots of the early church as a “peace church,” and this connection entails the responsibility of proclaiming a message of peace today.
Despite the author's own claim in the Preface that the book examines “salvation” in Luke, it is not wholly clear that this is really what the book is doing. Rather, the author seems to be using the category of “salvation” as something of a catch-all term to cover a wide variety of theological topics. It is not always clear precisely how these topics relate to one another or to the concept of salvation as Belousek understands it. More precision in the use of Luke's own theological vocabulary may have helped to ameliorate this concern.
Notwithstanding this potential critique, the book has much to offer, especially to the right audience. Belousek himself identifies the intended audience of the book: “the general reader,” “pastors and clergy,” “those striving for justice,” and “teachers and students” (pp. x–xi). One might imagine the book most easily at home in the context of a church-led adult education class where readers have little familiarity with biblical scholarship but an interest in connecting their reading of the text to contemporary theological concerns. Overall, this book offers the novice reader of Luke a helpful overview of the key theological themes that inform the Gospel's narrative.