The Literary Construction of the Other in the Acts of the Apostles: Charismatics, the Jews, and Women (Princeton Theological Monograph)

The Literary Construction of the Other in the Acts of the Apostles explores the beginnings of the Christian Church, showing how early believers united and created a self-identity through delimiting the Other. Mitzi Smith shows how the creation and subjugation of the Other was crucial for the expansion of Christianity by the Apostles. Mitzi Smith employs Jonathon Smith's theory of otherness as a framework for analysing Luke's literary and discursive construction of character in Acts. In order to define the Self we define the Other, using opposition as a form of definition and subjugation. Furthermore, Jonathon Smith argues that the project of otherness is more about proximity than alterity; the other that is most like us is the most threatening. Both Luke and many others have written accounts of Jesus's deeds; Luke's project of otherness was motivated by the need to promote his account as the most accurate. Projects of otherness are linguistic or discursive, evaluative, hierarchical, and essentially political and economic. Mitzi Smith provides a new way to understand Christian identity; allowing people to understand the Other in terms of themselves.