The book of Acts opens with the dramatic story of tongues of flame descending upon believers at Pentecost and the prophecy of an egalitarian dispensation of the Spirit being fulfilled. Yet, as the narrative unfolds, we become aware of a tension between the socially egalitarian promise of the Pentecost story and the author's underlying concern to provide reassurance for his elite patron Theophilus that Jesus followers do not disturb the existing social order.
In this guide, Acts is read as a struggle to tame the tongues of fire. Acts mutes the egalitarian promise of the Spirit through presenting an 'orderly account' (as its author calls it) of the Jesus movement that appeals to elite sensibilities. And, at the same time, the narrative contains contradictions, gaps and fissures that suggest the outlines of a more complex, and even subversive, religious movement.

Shelly Matthews is Associate Professor of Religion at Furman University, the co-editor of Walk in the Ways of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, and the author of First Converts: Rich Pagan Women and the Rhetoric of Mission in Early Judaism and Christianity.

1. TRADITIONAL QUESTIONS IN ACTS SCHOLARSHIP
Luke-Acts or Luke and Acts?
The Lukan Preface
Acts and the Question of Genre
Acts among Ancient Historical Narratives
Acts and the Pauline Corpus
Dating Acts
2. NARRATIVE OVERVIEW
The Jerusalem Section, Acts 1.1-8.3
Connecting Paul to the Jerusalem Apostles, Acts 8.4-12.25
Paul's Gentile Mission, 13.1-20.38
Paul in Roman Custody, 21.1-28.31
3. ACTS AND EMPIRE: SECURITY IN ROMAN TERMS
Gullible Women and the Dregs of Society
Jabbering in Corners
Worshiping the Crucified
Spitting at the Gods and Scorning Public Robes
Worse than the 'Wretched Tribe' of the Jews
4. ACTS ON JEWS AND JUDAISM: VIOLENCE 'TURNED INWARD'
UNDER EMPIRE
The Nature of Intramural Polemic
Roman Perspectives on Jews and Judaism
Acts' Love of 'Things Jewish'
First, to the Jews
Beyond the Pale
Making Sense of Things
5. THE PENTECOST
The 'Orderly Account' of the Spirit's Descent
Reading against the Grain
Other Readings of the Pentecost
Imagining What Luke Attempts to Suppress