The Good Samaritan: Luke 10 for the Life of the Church

by Emerson B. Powery, Stephen B. Chapman (Editor)

Overview

The story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10 is one of Jesus's most well-known parables. It continues to fascinate readers with its powerful imagery and ethical significance.

In this exposition, New Testament scholar Emerson Powery shows how this classic and beloved text can speak afresh to the life of the church today. Powery explains that in every generation, followers of Jesus need to be reminded that mercy is a natural consequence of faith. Jesus's parable of the good Samaritan emphasizes this point in a dramatic way by placing an "enemy" as the central hero of the story. Powery explores diverse interpretations of the good Samaritan, carefully investigates this parable within the theology of the Gospel of Luke, and connects the parable to contemporary events. The book encourages readers to think through the ethical implications of this story for their own contexts.

The Touchstone Texts series addresses key Bible passages, making high-quality biblical scholarship accessible to the church. The series editor is Stephen B. Chapman, Duke Divinity School.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781540960665
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/12/2022
Series:	Touchstone Texts
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Emerson B. Powery (PhD, Duke University) is professor of biblical studies at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Jesus Reads Scripture and Immersion Bible Studies: Mark and the coauthor of The Genesis of Liberation: Biblical Interpretation in the Antebellum Narratives of the Enslaved. He is also the coeditor of True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary.

Table of Contents

Contents
Series Preface
The Preamble
1. Who Is My Neighbor? Luke 10 for the Life of the Church
2. The Good Samaritan in Christian Tradition: What You See Depends on Where You Stand
3. Mercy and the Neighbor: Reading the Parable
4. Samaritan Lives Matter: Is the Church Engaged in Good Trouble?
Conclusion: Imagining a "Samaritan" for the Life of the Church
Indexes

Editorial Reviews

02/14/2022

This multilayered exploration by Powery (Jesus Reads Scripture), a biblical studies professor at Messiah University, surveys historical interpretations of Jesus’s parable of the good Samaritan, in which a social outcast (the Samaritan) assists a traveler whom robbers have left for dead. Powery examines the story through the perspectives of theologians, writers, and other historical figures such as Saint Augustine, Frederick Douglass, Howard Thurman, and Toni Morrison, noting how social and theological forces shaped their readings. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, interpreted the parable as promoting “a willingness to challenge and renovate the structural, unjust systems” that made the traveler vulnerable to robbery. Saint Augustine, Powery writes, viewed the parable as an allegory, with the traveler standing in for humans, the robbers for the devil, and the Samaritan for God. Powery concludes that the parable is “a story about the kind of community Jesus envisions for the world.” The author’s keen insights into the intersections of history and hermeneutics bring new light to an oft-studied story. This lively treatise will invigorate personal and scholarly inquiry. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly