Based on the plot-oriented nature of the Acts narrative, a key thought behind this book is how God is revealed in the deployment of characters and events. God's supreme saving will and mission plan determine the development of human history as well as the narrative; God's sovereign authority and power governs the movement of characters and the development of events and thus assures the fulfilment of his salvific plan. From the carrying out of the divine redemptive plan emerges a God who is invisible-yet-perceivable, dominant-yet-cogent, and continuous-yet-changing.

The Acts of the Apostles reveals a God at work. However, what do God’s actions reveal about God’s character? This question drives the present study, whose ultimate goal is to discover what portrayal Acts constructs of God through God’s actions. Aarflot demonstrates how Jesus’s ascension and the development of the gentile mission prove key to Acts’ distinctive portrayal of God. The study explores what happens to the characterization of God when Jesus’s character comes to resemble God through the ascension, noting in particular the effect of ambiguous language that might refer to either God or Jesus on the portrayal of God. It also considers how Acts depicts God through actions in Israel’s past in relation to the narrative present. This is done by looking at how God is characterized at decisive moments of Acts’ plot. The resulting observations are ultimately synthesized in a final chapter presenting the portrayal of God in Acts. The results of the study have implications for the discussion of the impact of Christology on theology, and furthers the discussion of “God” in the New Testament by delineating a constant, yet developing image of God, and solidifies previous research’s observations on the centrality of God’s actions to Acts’ narrative.

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 guide to interpreting the characters in Luke-Acts, the longest and most complex of New Testament narratives, uses the latest literary-critical theory and biblical scholarship to construct an understanding of how the characters are formed and how they function in the Lukan writings. It is the author’s contention that the reader plays an important role in character building. The author illustrates this process using three representative characters or character groups: John the Baptist, the Pharisees, and Herod the Tetrarch.

Ling Cheng offers a rounded picture of the missional God who implicitly fills the pages of the Book of Acts through the work of his nascent church.

This guide to interpreting the characters in Luke-Acts, the longest and most complex of New Testament narratives, uses the latest literary-critical theory and biblical scholarship to construct an understanding of how the characters are formed and how they function in the Lukan writings. It is the author’s contention that the reader plays an important role in character building. The author illustrates this process using three representative characters or character groups: John the Baptist, the Pharisees, and Herod the Tetrarch.