Customer Reviews

The Gospel of John and Christian Theology

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4 star:		(1)
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This considerable volume features a collection of essays on a myriad of topics ranging from historical assessment of the Fourth Gospel through to high-octane theological questions upon good and evil. The inclusions are really eclectic and there is herein a veritable feast for Johannine aficionados! It is edited by the prolific Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser.

The range of contributors is, similarly, considerable and of varying pedigrees, with a range of younger scholars finding voice as well as those of a more established (e.g. Martin Hengel, Rowan Williams and Richard Bauckham himself) and, one might say, in certain cases, a slightly more conservative disposition.

It is hard to see how most scholars of the Fourth Gospel are going to show an interest in most of the topics addressed through these 390 odd pages, but there are those - and the reader may either be one or know one - who seem to display a quite insatiable appetite for all things Johannine. That being said, no institutional theological library should be without this considerable resource as it is bound to prove to be a good 'first port of call' for essays and divers others inquiries into the Fourth Gospel for years to come.

Michael Calum Jacques

This book is both excellent and frustrating at the same time. Let me start by stating the positive aspects. Each article is well crafted and academically superb. The selection of authors who present in this volume certainly represent their traditions and ideas in a very professional manner. There is great display of courtesy among the authors, and while there is disagreement among the scholars over various issues there is no theological "mud-slinging" that occurs.

There are some fantastic articles with rich and meaningful commentary on the issues. D. Bingham's short article on Irenaeus'soteriology and it's relation to John's gospel is insightful but in fact is perhaps too brief to fully develop his ideas. Terry Griffith's article also gives a very nice summation of anti-semitism in relation to John 8 where Jesus told his audience they were of the devil. He argues that this audience may have been primarily comprised of the audience spoken to in John 6 and argues that this is not an ethnic designation but a definition of an apostate. Tonstad' article was incredible and his perspective on the necessity of the Cross was not only intellectually stimulating but very compelling and moving. Andrew Lincoln's article on Lazarus examines literary features to see how John is addressing the issue of death for second generation believers. The first two articles on Christology by Hengel and Rae are also quite excellent and are a great point of reference for the prologue of the gospel and it's theological perspective.

Most of the other articles were good to fair. There were a couple that were almost inaccessible to most readers and thus this is not a book for someone who does have a theological background. For example; phrases in Greek were inaccessible to me. While I understand a smathering of Latin I do not unfortunately speak Greek as of yet. Some words or ideas were lost to me because I could not read them. A couple of articles were quite verbose and were so thick that it was truly distracting from the themes. While I appreciated the varied backgrounds I think it would have been advantageous for them to include a few traditions that were more favorable to the idea that John the son of Zebedee may have in fact been the author. There are very good teachers who still hold to this such as Andreas Kostenberger and D.A. Carson.

While this is not my favorite work on John it is certainly worth reading. There is a lot of nourishment for both soul and spirit. I would buy this volume for the Tonstad article alone. But there are a number of good articles and it gives a nice diversity.

This book is a must for any student of John's Gospel. The articles cover the pertinent issues surrounding the Fourth Gospel and are written in a readable but thorough fashion by today's top scholars. Like any good resource,it saved me time and energy in trying to wrap my mind around John's deep waters; that is, if that is fully possible.