The Johannine Community in Contemporary Debate - (Interpreting Johannine Literature) by Christopher Seglenieks & Christopher W Skinner (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume offers new proposals for understanding the emergence of the Johannine Literature, building upon existing perspectives on the Johannine community. Featuring a lineup of international experts, the book consists of constructive essays

Book Synopsis

Few scholarly constructs have proven as influential or as durable as the Johannine community. A product of the era in New Testament studies dominated by redaction criticism, the Johannine community construct as articulated first by J. Louis Martyn and later by Raymond E. Brown emerged with an explanatory power that proved persuasive to scholars deliberating on the provenance and emergence of the Johannine literature for the next 50 years. Recent years, however, have seen this once dominant paradigm questioned by many of those working with the Gospel and Letters of John. The Johannine Community in Contemporary Debate is dedicated to exploring the current state of the question while shining a light on new and constructive proposals for understanding the emergence of the Johannine literature. Some contributions accept the idea of a Johannine Community but suggest different ways we might know about the nature of that community. Others reject the existence of a Johannine Community, suggesting alternate models for understanding the emergence of these texts. These proposals are themselves set in perspective by responses from senior scholars.

Review Quotes

"Most narratives are written by someone for someone. Was that the case for the Fourth Gospel? This illuminating collection enables a number of newer perspectives in the search for the Gospel's presumed origins. Gifted authors challenge long-accepted historical paradigms, raising questions that shine fresh light upon why this Jesus-story was written, how it was written, and for whom it was written. The Johannine Community in Contemporary Debate should become an important point of reference for all future discussions of these major interpretative issues." --Francis J. Moloney, senior professorial fellow, University of Divinity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

"This is a fascinating and timely volume of essays on the Johannine community theory. It explores the question of whether the theory has run its course or whether anything can be retrieved or revisioned from a previous generation of Johannine scholarship. It does so from several different angles: literary, sociological, historical and theological. The strength of this collection lies in its diversity of opinions and approaches, stimulating the reader to new ways of envisaging the origins, context and futuristic vision of the Johannine writings." --Dorothy A. Lee, Trinity College, University of Divinity

About the Author

Christopher Seglenieks works at the Bible College of South Australia, an affiliated college of the Australian College of Theology.

Christopher W. Skinner is professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and Graduate Program Director in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago.