In this book, Eric C. Smith applies the postcolonial theory of necropolitics to the Acts of the Apostles to reveal the ways power makes claims on the lives of persons, especially in colonial or imperial circumstances where coercion, violence, intimidation, imprisonment, and fear are commonplace. Necropolitics reveals a useful perspective for understanding Acts and its account of the aftermath of Jesus's death, the expansion of the Jesus movement across the Mediterranean basin, and the movement's many encounters with representatives of cultural, religious, and political power.