Repentance and conversion are key topics in New Testament interpretation and in Christian life. However, the study of conversion in early Christianity has been plagued by psychological assumptions alien to the world of the New Testament. Leading New Testament scholar Joel Green believes that careful attention to the narrative of Luke-Acts calls for significant rethinking about the nature of Christian conversion. Drawing on the cognitive sciences and examining key evidence in Luke-Acts, this book emphasizes the embodied nature of human life as it explores the life transformation signaled by the message of conversion, offering a new reading of a key aspect of New Testament theology.

Conversion is a main theological theme in the Lukan corpus. Since much attention has been paid to the issue in Acts, the present work shows how the evangelist also conveys his theological emphasis on conversion in his gospel through material either unique to it or that Luke has edited to this purpose. Attention is paid to the different issues involved in Luke's emphasis on conversion and an attempt is made to place them within the larger spectrum of his theology. The grouping of all these elements provides the basis for constructing Luke's paradigm of conversion.

This study explores the conversion theologies of Luke and Paul. For Luke and Paul conversion played an important role in the early Christian experience and Morlan offers a fresh look into how they interpreted this phenomenon. Morlan traverses representative texts in the Lukan and Pauline corpus equipped with three theological questions. What is the change involved in this conversion? Why is conversion necessary? Who is responsible for conversion? Morlan presents theological and exegetical analysis of Luke 15, Acts 2, Acts 17.16-34, Romans 2 and Romans 9-11 and answers these questions, and, in turn, builds theological profiles for both Luke and Paul. These profiles provide fresh insight into the theological relationship between Luke and Paul, showing significant similarities as well as sharp contrasts between them. Similarities surface between Luke and Paul concerning the centrality of Christology in their conversion theologies. While showing a complex relationship between human and divine agency in conversion, both Luke and Paul understand successful conversion to be impossible without the intervention of an agency outside of the pre-convert.

Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James

This highly original commentary, part of the New International Commentary, is unique for the way it combines concerns with first-century culture in the Roman world with understanding the text of Luke as a wholistic, historical narrative.