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The Gospel of John and the Religious Quest
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Johannes Nissen
The Gospel of John and the Religious Quest
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Copyright © 2013 Johannes Nissen. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Pickwick Publications
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
isbn 13: 978-1-62032-466-0
eisbn 13: 978-1-62189-920-4
Cataloging-in-Publication data:
Nissen, Johannes.
The gospel of John and the religious quest : historical and contemporary perspectives / Johannes Nissen.
viii + 210 pp. ; 23 cm—Includes bibliographical references.
isbn 13: 978-1-62032-466-0
1. Bible. John—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Religiousness. 3. Religion. I. Title.
BS2615 N45 2013
Manufactured in the USA
Based on the Danish book: Vejen, sandheden og livet: Johannesevangeliet og den religiøse søgen (Aarhus: Forlaget Univers, 2010).
Preface
In 2010 I published a book in Danish on the Gospel of John and the religious quest that forms the basis of the present volume. Although the content and outline are essentially the same, the English version is not a direct translation. Some minor changes and additions have been made for the following reasons:
In the first place the present book is aimed at an international circle of readers. In consequence, more literature is surveyed and the number of references to the scholarly debate has increased.
Second, I have taken into consideration new books and articles published since the Danish original. The debate on the character of mission and religious dialogue is an ongoing process. It is my hope that this publication will make a contribution to this discussion.
My purpose with this publication is not to present a new commentary on the Fourth Gospel, but rather to interpret selected parts of the Gospel with a specific view to the religious quest and the encounter of religions. The title of the book has a twofold meaning. On the one hand it reflects the understanding that the Gospel in its origin was part of a dialogue with people of various religious traditions. On the other hand it indicates how the Gospel is used today—by Christians and non-Christians in a vivid dialogue with those who live in non-Christian religious traditions.
Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) unless otherwise stated. Translations of quotations that I myself have made are marked with an asterisk.
Special thanks are due to Edward Broadbridge, who read and corrected the English text. I am also grateful to Aarhus University Research Foundation for financial support for the linguistic revision. Finally, I would like to thank Pickwick Publications for their readiness to publish this book.
Johannes Nissen
Aarhus, February 2013
1
Introduction
Aim and Method of This Study
The Religious Quest and the Religious Encounter
Individualism and Religious Diversity as a Challenge
In recent years church and Christianity have faced a number of challenges, including two crucial questions: How should the church respond to the religious quest in our time? And how should the church be involved in the issues raised by the religious encounter and religious dialogues? The two questions are closely related, since people are searching not only for Christianity but also for other religions and philosophies.
My concern here is to consider how from a Christian perspective, and in particular via the Fourth Gospel, we may be engaged in a dialogue with the religious diversity of our time. Throughout the book I employ the terms “religious quest” and “religious encounter,” but with an emphasis on the former. This is due to two considerations. First, the term “religious quest” is conceived of as being more comprehensive than “religious encounter.” Second, while “religious quest” is primarily linked to the personal aspect, “religious encounter” may point to an understanding of faith systems. In other words: the first term is about faith meeting faith, while the second is more about the encounter between religions.
The religious landscape today is undergoing a fundamental change, characterized in particular by two trends: individualization and religious diversity. The religious scene is dominated by globalization and pluralism, and when the world is “one world,” the religious encounter occurs everywhere. No longer do the different religions live in splendid isolation in diverse places, now they are potentially everywhere.
In such a situation we have all become autonomous, and can choose a creative approach to the religious diversity by pursuing our own personal religiosity. The outcome is a kind of patchwork, with many people finding inspiration in various religious traditions and choosing a multi-religious identity in consequence: in such a free-for-all the incarnate can even become the reincarnated. This religious change has been described as a transition from classical Christian faith to “new spirituality,” and is marked by a number of traits. It is a change from the transcendent God to the God within, from God as lord and master to God as friend and helper, from “understanding” to “experience,” from “faith as truth” to “faith as trust,” from a philosophical truth to a psychological truth, from hierarchical relations to reciprocal relations.1
Such individualism is a challenge to the church as the body of Christ. Is this self-centeredness compatible with Christian faith? Does it reflect a personal responsibility in a new and significant way? By way of answer we can begin by asserting that it is an important function of the church and the Gospel to be present in the individual life and to take part in forming it.2 At the same time, the insistence on the church as community and the individual as self-focused must not be seen as mutually exclusive. They may well be mutually interactive and even mutual correctives of each other. In the years to come this relationship between communal worship and personal spirituality will be decisive for the church.3
The present situation is not unlike that in the first century AD.4 The Graeco-Roman world was dominated by a common culture, usually called Hellenism.5 But at the same time Hellenism was marked by a great variety of religions and philosophies, and Christianity was just one among many.6 So what was the specific character of Christianity compared to other religious movements in the first century?
The most immediate way of answering this question is to study the New Testament writings, in particular those books addressed to a Hellenistic audience. The Gospel of John is one of these. The presupposition for this claim is that the readers of this Gospel are living in different