Conflict in Acts 1–5: “Religious” and Other Factors

Abstract

In its account of the expansion of the early Christian movement from Jerusalem to Rome, the book of Acts includes several instances of conflict. At first sight these conflicts are of a religious nature, as the Christian message encounters the religions and cultures of the Jewish and Hellenistic-Roman world. However, these conflict narratives suggest that other factors were also involved. Recorded in Acts are issues of power and influence and control over identity. This interpretation follows the trend in recent research to appreciate that conflict that expresses as inter-religious is often at heart intra-religious, and that the violence that occurs is often due to non-religious factors. After a brief survey of recent theory and an analysis of the conflicts in Acts 1–5, the article draws some implications for understanding religious conflict in our present day and age.

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