A Conversation with Matthew L. Skinner, author of Acts: An Interpretation Bible Commentary

A conversation with Dr. Matthew L. Skinner, professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, who wrote the new volume in the Interpretation Bible Commentary series, “Acts.” The commentary is aimed at preachers, teachers, and anyone seeking practical insights for today. It walks through Acts from start to finish, highlighting historical, cultural, and rhetorical details, while also connecting the text to current questions around faith, community, inclusion, and church life. The book is readable and concise, designed to be useful whether you're reading straight through or focusing on specific passages. Skinner emphasizes imagination in preaching and teaching, encourages attentiveness to God and others, and acknowledges both the challenges and the beauty of the text. His goal is to help readers see how Acts still speaks today—and to remind us that even in times of change, God is faithful.
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Book Description:
"Among the many commentaries on the book of Acts, add this one to the categories of the most beautiful and most insightful. You must add it to your library." —Willie James Jennings, Yale Divinity School

Encounter Acts as a book that depicts the church as a hospitable and multicultural community on a journey in which it continues to be surprised by the new realities the Holy Spirit makes possible in the post-Easter world.
Acts: An Interpretation Bible Commentary is a lively, readable commentary that offers historical, literary, theological, and pastoral analysis of the Acts of the Apostles. It explores the biblical narrative’s potential to inform the theological imagination of ancient audiences and offers insights about how Christian readers and communities might constructively engage Acts today. In this fresh commentary, Matthew L. Skinner opens up both the text and the worlds of its first audience—communities of faith in need of a clear sense of identity and encouragement that the power of God was still with them. The commentary respects the complexity of difficult and significant themes that permeate Acts, such as the friction between Jesus’ followers and powerful Roman interests, depictions of opposition led by Jewish antagonists, humorous undertones in violent episodes, and storytelling flourishes, such as incredible coincidences and last-second escapes from danger.
This interpretation of Acts written by a scholar and preacher illuminates meaningful connections between the story Acts tells and challenges facing churches today, such as countering antisemitism, embracing inclusivity, articulating the good news in ways that respect the distinctiveness of different cultures, ensuring security for especially vulnerable members of society, living out values that challenge conventional political and economic assumptions, honoring the gifts and dignity of all people, promoting motives for evangelism that reject aspirations of dominance and colonialism, decrying unjust judicial and penal abuses, participating in respectful multifaith dialogue, and trusting God for the church’s future even when doing so seems ill-advised. Those who preach, teach, and study the book of Acts will learn to experience it as a work of pastoral theology, a narrative written to encourage believers by reassuring them of God’s faithfulness.
Emphasizing sound critical exegesis with strong theological sensibilities, the Interpretation Bible Commentary series features innovative interpretive approaches that help readers engage the biblical text as a source for participating in the larger social world. These new volumes, written by an array of new and diverse authors, are designed to meet the needs of clergy, teachers, and students by inviting readers into the lively work of careful biblical interpretation for the purpose of faithful exposition. Through its engagement with Scripture, the Interpretation Bible Commentary series illumines our relationship with God, one another, and creation so that readers are propelled with new understanding and energy for fulfilling God’s claims on us in our rapidly changing contexts.