The Acts of the Apostles

xiv INTRODUCTION
paradox. A sacred volume of inexhaustible content
—the portrait of Jesus Christ in a concordia discors
of testimony, of narrative, and of speculation—the
apostles—the churches—that multitude of Spiritgifted
ones experiencing and working Signs and
Above this surging sea, whose waves are
Wonders !
breaking in ever fresh creations in the sphere of
thought and action, the heavens are dark with the
storm-cloud of the approaching End—and yet at
the same time the most strenuous efforts are made
after an accommodation with the world as it is, and
towards transformation of its life by the new spirit.
Lastly, everywhere conflict and controversy : the Jew
and the Greek—Paul and the rest of the apostles
—knowledge and the absolute contempt of know-
ledge—the spirit and the letter—tradition and prophecy—
speculation opposed to speculation— facts
and their commentaries— life and asceticism. In
such a situation it was that St. Luke seized his
pen and undertook not only to write history, to
recount how all that he saw around him had come
to pass, but also to unite this history as a second
part with the Gospel story.
The first part of his intention was a venture which
cannot be easily interpreted from a psychological
point of view, unless the writer himself had been in
direct and personal touch with the facts which he
wished to describe. Those who regard the author
simply as an editor of sources only transfer the
difficulty of the problem to the shoulders of some
early unknown writer, and those who bring him
down into a later generation mistake the character