A Friendly Guide to Luke's Gospel

A Friendly Guide to Luke's Gospel is an invitation to embark on a journey full of surprises. The author of Luke was an accomplished and sophisticated writer, with a keen sense of literary structure as well as a profound understanding of the universal nature of God's love. For the reader who has perhaps become used to hearing gospels in Sunday fragments, Stuart Moran's commentary encourages us to read Luke's Gospel as a whole book, seeing it as a story crafted by a master hand. For example, he shows the reader Luke's elegant balancing of the stories about the births of both Jesus and John the Baptist: the parallels are compelling and illuminating. And Moran's analysis of the story of the Lost Son (known of old as the Prodigal Son) shows us the heart of Luke's insight into what Jesus was telling his disciples about God: that God loves us, even to a point that some would consider unwise.

This book will be a valuable resource for anyone who wishes to deepen their understanding of not just the gospels, but also of what it means to be loved so much by God. Just how far will God go to show us this love? We can see how far Jesus understood this and how much he strove to show this to the stubborn band of people surrounding him. Moran also shows us that Luke's special gift is to assert the Good News for all the people of the earth.

Written for an audience that went far beyond the walls of Jerusalem, Moran's Friendly Guide to Luke's Gospel is an indispensable resource for readers, teachers, and all who wish to deepen their understanding of this, the tenderest of all the gospels. Stuart Moran has provided for a wide readership an up-to-date, clear and very engaging guide to Luke's Gospel. Enticed by the opening paragraph, the reader is carried along effortlessly on an informative journey with Luke. This is popular distillation of sound scholarship in the best sense.