Meeting St. Luke Today

Meeting St. Luke Today: Understanding the Man, His Mission, and His Message
by Daniel J. Harrington, SJ (Loyola Press, 2009)

AC Librarian's Review


Happy New Year! In the secular world, the new year began just a week ago, but in the Church, a new liturgical year started a little over a month ago on the first Sunday of Advent. With a new liturgical year comes a new cycle of Lectionary readings for Sunday Mass. We are now in "Year C", also known as the "Year of Luke", from whose gospel the majority of gospel readings will be taken in the months to come. How appropriate, then, that Loyola Press should publish Meeting St. Luke Today, a very informative and accessible guide to Luke's gospel, just as the Church enters into the new liturgical year.

Meeting St. Luke Today comes from the pen of Fr. Daniel Harrington, SJ. Harrington, a New Testament professor at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, is perhaps one of the finest and most prolific Catholic biblical scholars in the English-speaking world today, with a wide-ranging literary output that ranges from very technical biblical commentaries to highly accessible introductory works. It is in the latter category that Meeting St. Luke Today belongs. Fr. Harrington wrote this book to provide the average lay reader with an overview of the narrative structure and major themes of Luke's gospel, as well as to offer tools for praying with and acting on the message that Luke wanted to offer his readers. After an introductory chapter in which he introduces readers to Luke the evangelist, Harrington then devotes six chapters to the gospel itself, laying out the major themes that arise in each section and offering questions for reflection. The second half of the book is devoted to a consideration of "Luke's Literary Artistry." Fr. Harrington begins with a chapter in which he shows how Luke takes material from several sources - the gospel of Mark, collections of Jesus' sayings, and Luke's own unique material - to present his own distinct portrayal of Jesus. He then offers an exploration of major theological ideas in Luke (salvation history, prayer, the Holy Spirit, etc.) This is followed by an excellent chapter on praying with Luke's gospel. Here Fr. Harrington offers readers two tried and tested means of meditating on the Scriptures, namely the ancient method of lectio divina and the Ignatian model of imaginative contemplation. He concludes with a chapter on the Church's use of Luke in the Lectionary and offers some suggestions for how to appropriate Luke's message in our own lives today.

Meeting St. Luke Today is a fine introduction to what its author says "may well be the most beautiful book ever written." Fr. Harrington provides an informative overview of the gospel's narrative structure along with many practical tools for praying with Luke and gaining a deeper appreciation of his portrait of Jesus. I highly recommend this book as a companion to our communal reading of Luke's gospel during the coming liturgical year. It is, however (and I'm sure Fr. Harrington would agree with me on this point) a companion. There's no substitute for reading the gospel itself - something I encourage everyone to do as we begin another year dedicated to St. Luke.