Bodies Restored, Communities Fractured? Luke and Salvation Revisited

Abstract

Luke’s Gospel places great emphasis on the theme of salvation, and on Jesus as the Savior who restores well-being to persons who are experiencing varying conditions of need. Salvation is a personal matter in Luke’s narrative but also communal; this essay focuses in particular on ways in which Jesus’ restoration of persons sometimes disrupts and indeed fractures communities. The rhetorical work of this aspect of the narrative is not complete, however, until the destabilizing of social systems that can accompany restored well-being for individuals yields to a larger, more inclusive restoration of community.