The SCM Theological Commentary Series enlists leading theologians to read and interpret Scripture for the twenty-first century, just as the church fathers, the Reformers, and other orthodox Christians did for their times and places.

This commentary, like each in the series, is designed to serve the church, aiding preaching, teaching and study groups, as well as theological scholars and students.

Jaroslav Pelikan initiates the forty-volume SCM Theological Commentary Series with work on Acts. This commentary, like each in the series, is designed to serve readers by demonstrating the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible. Figures of the classical church such as Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and Wesley interpreted the Bible theologically, believing Scripture as a whole witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Modern interpreters of the Bible questioned this premise. But in recent decades, a critical mass of theologians and biblical scholars has begun to reassert the priority of a theological reading of Scripture.

The central premise of this series being that doctrine provides a structure and cogency for understanding the scriptures that has been one constant throughout the history of Christianity and is therefore a practice well worth returning to and re-establishing.