Table of Contents
Introduction: An Independent Church's Vision of Faith 1
A different understanding of the good news 1
A local church's interpretation of faith 3
Dedication to the essentials of religion 4
Gospel for a new age 6
Chapter 1 The World of John's Gospel 9
The Beginnings of Christianity 10
The Jesus of history 10
Jesus of faith 12
The Jewish Boots of Christianity 14
Judaism 14
The religious parties of Judaism 16
Hellenistic Setting of Early Christianity 19
The Hellenistic world 19
The diaspora Jews 21
History of Early Christianity 23
Missionary expansion 23
The organization of the early Church 24
The Setting of John's Gospel 26
Influences on John's expression of faith 26
Membership of John's community 28
The history of John's community 30
Location of John's community 31
Chapter 2 The Author of the Fourth Gospel 33
John in Tradition 34
Some unique features of the Fourth Gospel 34
Early testimonies concerning the author 35
The Beloved Disciple 37
John the evangelist 39
John the Author 41
The Fourth Gospel's style 41
Some specific stylistic features 42
Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel 44
His readers 45
John and the Synoptics 46
The tradition behind John 46
John's sources 47
John's relationship to the Synoptics 49
The redaction of John 50
The Johannine School 52
A community tradition 52
Other Johannine writings 53
A regional church 54
Chapter 3 Proclamation for a New Age 57
John's Understanding of History 58
A new age made known in history 58
John's concept of history 60
Reinterpretation of tradition 62
Eschatology in the Fourth Gospel 63
Eschatology 63
Realized eschatology 64
Judgment 66
Dualistic Concepts 67
Light or darkness 68
Truth or falsehood 69
The other world or this world 70
Spirit or flesh 71
Vision of a New Age 72
The Prologue 72
The Baptist's testimony 74
A new order replaces the old 75
John: evangelist and interpreter 76
Chapter 4 The Purpose of John 79
Aims of the Fourth Evangelist 80
Influences on the purpose of John 80
Recent studies of John's gospel 81
Pastoral concerns and interests 83
Structure of John 84
The Gift of life 88
Life in Christ 88
Conditions for receiving life 90
Fullness of life 91
The Signs 93
Nature of Johannine signs 93
Structure and number of the signs 95
Teaching of the signs 97
The Discourses 99
John's use of the discourses 99
The teachings of the discourses 100
Chapter 5 Portraits of God 105
The Father 105
"The Father possesses life in himself" 105
God's love for the world 107
The Father and Jesus 108
Jesus 110
"We saw his glory" 111
The preexistent Lord 111
The Word 113
The Son 114
Savior of the world 116
"The Word became Flesh" 119
The ministry 119
The Last Supper 121
The Passion 122
The Resurrection 125
The Holy Spirit 127
"God… does not ration his gift of the Spirit." 127
The Paraclete 128
Chapter 6 Discipleship in John 131
Nature of Discipleship in John 132
Disciples are Jesus' own 132
Discipleship - a transforming gift 133
Active responses 134
Abide in me 135
Disciples in John 136
The first disciples 136
Other models of discipleship 138
Women disciples in John 139
Rejection of the Sinful World 140
"Do you also want to leave?" 140
Prove the world wrong about sin 142
Commitment to Believe 144
Journeys to faith 144
Nature of belief in John 147
Life in God 150
Love of God 150
Love of others 151
Chapter 7 Church in John 155
Nature of the Church in John 156
Church in the Fourth Gospel 156
Models of Church in John 158
Living as Church 161
A sharing Church 161
Baptism 162
Eucharist 164
Other Johannine rituals 165
Authority in the Church 166
Ministerial leadership 166
Institutionalized authority 167
Mary the mother of Jesus 170
Mission in John's Community 171
Mission and ministry 171
Witnessing 172
Building unity 174
A Concluding Word from the Johannine Jesus 177
Notes 179
Bibliography 193
Index of Subjects 199
Index of Authors 205
Index of Scripture References 207
