Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Luke and Beyond - Paperback

by Phillip C. Thrailkill (Author)

Two questions are braided together in Luke's Gospel. Who is Jesus, and what does it mean to be his student and apprentice? The church has spent much of its intellectual energies on the first question, but not so much on the second. We are precise in our Christology and vague in our Discipleology (my new word!). Of the four biographies that open the New Testament, Luke is perhaps the best equipped to answer the question of what it means to follow Jesus along with others, and what we can expect in the process. Luke's Gospel is dense with story after story about Jesus's stumbling, goofy, persistent disciples. And his second volume--Acts--continues the tale. There is a deep continuity, as Luke teaches, between Jesus's original disciples and the ones who later declared their allegiance to him after his resurrection. We walk in the footsteps of pioneers in this new way of living with a Jesus who is always near but just beyond sight. The aim of this book is to plunder the fruits of New Testament scholarship, especially the tools of rhetorical and narrative criticism, to highlight what an incredible adventure came with the call to follow me.

Author Biography

Phillip C. Thrailkill is a retired United Methodist minister teaching in Nigeria, Liberia, and Kenya. His two previous books are Mary: Lessons in Discipleship from Jesus' Earthy Family (2007), and Resurrection: A Pastor's Reading of the Major New Testament Resurrection Passages (2014). He served for seven years as the Chair of the Theology Commission for The Confessing Movement and for five years chaired the board of The Mission Society for United Methodists.