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  1. Home
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  3. Ecclesiology and Theosis in the Gospel of John
  • Cited by 15
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2017
Print publication year:
2017
Online ISBN:
9781316823750
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316823750
Subjects:
Biblical Studies - New Testament, Classical Literature, Religion, Theology
Series:
Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series (166)
Information

Book description

For the author of the fourth Gospel, there is neither a Christless church nor a churchless Christ. Though John's Gospel has been widely understood as ambivalent toward the idea of 'church', Andrew Byers argues that ecclesiology is as central a Johannine concern as Christology. Rather than focusing on the community behind the text, John's Gospel directs attention to the vision of community prescribed within the text, which is presented as a 'narrative ecclesiology' by which the concept of 'church' gradually unfolds throughout the Gospel's sequence. The theme of oneness functions within this script and draws on the theological language of the Shema, a centerpiece of early Jewish theology and social identity. To be 'one' with this 'one God' and his 'one Shepherd' involves the believers' corporate participation within the divine family. Such participation requires an ontological transformation that warrants an ecclesial identity expressed by the bold assertion found in Jesus' citation of Psalm 82: 'you are gods'.

Reviews

'This sophisticated study refocuses the study of the Fourth Gospel, moving away from conjectural reconstructions of a sectarian Johannine community and moving towards an expansive account of John’s vision for the church as a community bound together in union with God through Jesus. Byers’s work offers a significant contribution to Johannine studies, a refutation of individualistic spiritual interpretations of John’s Gospel, and a salutary stimulus to theological reflection on New Testament ecclesiology.'

Richard B. Hays - Duke University, North Carolina

'Andrew J. Byers argues that John’s theological vision includes a narrative ecclesiology of transformative participation in the divine community that is appropriately characterized as corporate theosis. Byers both breaks new ground and prepares the exegetical and theological soil for others to cultivate. Creative and provocative, this is a major advance in Johannine studies that echoes, paradoxically but appropriately, patristic interpreters of John.'

Michael J. Gorman - St Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore

‘… provides an intriguing apology that the church fathers, in their reading of John in terms of theosis, were not off the mark.’

Charles R. Schulz Source: Concordia Journal

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