Moral Metaphors and Narrative Ethics in Luke-Acts - Hardcover

by Michael J. Falgout (Author)

This monograph examines ethical discourse in Luke-Acts by bringing narrative ethics into sustained conversation with cognitive linguistics. It argues that the Lukan narrative forms moral perception not simply through rules or exemplars, but through narratological patterns and devices that presume readerly agency, freedom, and participation. Focusing on three recurring moral metaphors--the social family, moral accounting, and the life journey--the study offers a phenomenological account of how the Lukan narrative shapes ethical reasoning at the level of embodied cognition. In so doing, it reframes longstanding discussions in Lukan ethics by attending to the largely tacit, formative processes through which narratives shape readers' moral understanding. By attending closely to narrative form, conceptual metaphor, and moral imagination, this book clarifies how Luke-Acts guides ethical interpretation without prescribing it, contributing a methodologically rigorous approach to New Testament ethics.

Author Biography

Michael J. Falgout, Ph.D. (Fuller Theological Seminary), is Assistant Professor of Biblical Literature at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. His research interests include Luke-Acts, New Testament ethics, canonical criticism, theological hermeneutics, and cognitive linguistics.