Spectral Lives by Luke and Philostratus: Journeying of Holy Men [Hardcover]

In the first century CE, the Jewish Jesus, his followers, and the Pythagorean Apollonius journeyed widely, each to spread their good news. Spectral Lives by Luke and Philostratus: Journeying of Holy Men argues that the biographers, Luke and Philostratus felt ethically compelled from divine specters to show and tell that good news to help their world. Post-Enlightenment developments in historiography have expanded understanding of ancient texts with a third dimension, a transhuman habitat evident in ancient texts. In this book, Robert Lee Williams investigates how affect theory has sensitized interpreters to emotional responses.Robert Lee Williams is Distinguished Fellow at B.H. Carroll Theological Seminary advising doctoral work.

This book on ancient travel itself crosses borders. The author of Luke-Acts journeys with Philo, Iamblichus, and above all Philostratus through ancient landscapes, but also through contemporary affect theory, queer historiography, and Derridean hauntology. The result is a unique and illuminating exercise in interdisciplinarity. Stephen D. Moore, Edmund S. Janes Professor of New Testament Studies, The Theological School, Drew University

Recent scholarship concerned with the New Testament and Christian origins has rightly focused on the Greco-Roman world of literature and imagination. In this stimulating study Robert Lee Williams compares the role played by journeying in Philostratuss Life of Apollonius of Tyana and Lukes Gospel and book of Acts. The comparison is insightful and fascinating. Modern readers will acquire new understanding of how ancient readers and auditors heard the narratives of Luke in their own time. Craig A. Evans, Houston Christian University

By harnessing post-structuralists affect and queer readings of ancient narrative, Williams takes us on exploratory tours of two holy men, Jesus of Nazareth of the evangelist Luke, and Apollonius of Tyana, of the philosopher-writer Philostratus of Sl#