The Spiral Gospel

How did the author of the Gospel of Luke intend it to be read? In TheSpiral Gospel, Rob James shows that the assumptions many modern readersbring to the text - that it claims to be historically factual, or merelyregurgitates existing stories - are not those of antiquity. Building on the central insight that it waswritten for a community who would have used it as their pre-eminent text, Jamesargues convincingly for a continuous, cyclical reading of Luke''s narrative.The evidence for this view, and also its consequences, can be seen inthe gospel''s intratextuality. Context is given at the end of the gospel thatinforms the beginning, and there are countless other intratextual elementsthroughout the text that are most readily noticeable on a second or subsequentreading. This deliberate, creative interweaving on the author''s part opens upnew levels of appreciation and faith for those who read in the way Luke''s firstaudience received his work.