John and Philosophy: A New Reading of the Fourth Gospel

by Troels Engberg-Pedersen

Overview

John and Philosophy: A New Reading of the Fourth Gospel offers a Stoic reading of the Fourth Gospel, especially its cosmology, epistemology, and ethics. It works through the gospel in narrative sequence providing a "philosophical narrative reading." In each section of the gospel Troels Engberg-Pedersen raises discusses philosophical questions. He compares John with Paul (in philosophy) and Mark (in narrative) to offer a new reading of the transmitted text of the Fourth Gospel. Of these two profiles, the narrative one is strongly influenced by the literary critical paradigm. Moreover, by attending carefully to a number of narratological features, one may come to see that the transmitted text in fact hangs together much more coherently than scholarship has been willing to see. The other profile is specifically philosophical. Scholarship has been well aware that the Fourth Gospel has what one might call a philosophical dimension. Engberg-Pedersen shows that throughout the Gospel contemporary Stoicism, works better to illuminate the text. This pertains to the basic cosmology (and cosmogony) that is reflected in the text, to the epistemology that underlies a central theme in it regarding different types of belief in Jesus, to the ethics that is introduced fairly late in the text when Jesus describes how the disciples should live once he has himself gone away from them, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198792505
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/09/2017
Pages:	430
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Troels Engberg-Pedersen is Professor of New Testament exegesis at University of Copenhagen. His publications include Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul: The Material Spirit (Oxford University Press, 2010), Paul in his Hellenistic Context (T&T Clark, 2004), and Paul Beyond the Judaism/Hellenism Divide (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001). He is co-editor of Stoicism in Early Christianity (with Tuomas Rasimus and Ismo Dunderberg; Baker,2010) and The Emotions in Hellenistic Philosophy (with Juha Sihvola; Springer, 2009).

Table of Contents

1. A Return to the Text 2. The Unity of Logos and Pneuma in John Chapter 13. Logos and Pneuma in the Body of the Gospel 4. The Philosophical Search in Chapters 2- 45. The Son Equals the Father and His Pneumatic Body Gives Life (Chapters 5-6) 6. Types of Belief and the Role of Pneuma in John's Epistemology of Faith (Chapters 7-8) 7. Who Can See What Jesus' Acts Signify (Chapters 9-10)? 8. From Believing in Jesus to Possessing His Logos (Chapters 11-12) 9. The Farewell Discourse as Paraklesis (Chapters 13-17) 10. The Execution of the Plan (Chapters 18-20) 11. John and his Predecessors: Paul and Mark

Editorial Reviews

"Above all, Engberg-Pedersen has presented a riveting take on John; it is manifestly interesting. The intellectual benefit of this is that old things are seen in news ways (or in old ways newly presented), an achievement bound to catalyze debate about and reevaluation of one of the most formative sacred texts of one of history's most influential religions." — J. Thomas Hewitt, Reading Religion

From the Publisher