Johannine Ethics: The Moral World of the Gospel and Epistles of John

Description

The Gospel and Epistles of John are often overlooked in discussions of New Testament ethics; indeed, it has been asserted that the Fourth Gospel is of only limited value to such discussions--even that John is practically devoid of ethical material. Representing a range of viewpoints, the essays collected here by prominent scholars reveal the surprising relevance and importance of the Johannine literature by examining the explicit imperatives and the values implicit in the Gospel narrative and epistles. The introduction sets out four major approaches to Johannine ethics today. Essays in subsequent sections evaluate the directives of the Johannine Jesus (believe, love, follow), tease out the implicit ethics of the Gospel's narrative (including its fraught and apparently sectarian representation of hoi Ioudaioi as Jesus's opponents), and propose different approaches for advancing the discussion of Johannine ethics beyond the categories now dominant in critical scholarship. In a concluding essay, the editors take stock of the book's wide-ranging discussion and suggest prospects for future study. The sum is a valuable resource for the student as well as the scholar interested in the question of Johannine ethics. Contributors xi Preface xiii Christopher W. Skinner Introduction: (How) Can We Talk About Johannine Ethics? Looking Back and Moving Forward xvii Part I. The Johannine Imperatives 1. Believing in the Gospel of John: The Ethical Imperative to Becoming Children of God Sherri Brown 3 2. Love One Another: The Johannine Love Command in the Farewell Discourse Christopher W. Skinner 25 3. “Follow Me”: A Life-Giving Ethical Imperative Raymond F. Collins 43 Part II. Implied Ethics in the Johannine Literature 4. The Creation Ethics of the Gospel of John R. Alan Culpepper 67 5. Love Embodied in Action: Ethics and Incarnation in the Gospel of John Jaime Clark-Soles 91 6. The Lyin’ King? Deception and Christology in the Gospel of John Adele Reinhartz 117 7. John’s Implicit Ethic of Enemy-Love Michael J. Gorman 135 8. Just Opponents? Ambiguity, Empathy, and the Jews in the Gospel of John Alicia D. Myers 159 9. The Johannine Request to “Come and See” and an Ethic of Love Toan Do 177 10. God, Eschatology, and “This World”: Ethics in the Gospel of John Francis J. Moloney, SDB 197 Part III. Moving Forward 11. Genre, Rhetoric, and Moral Efficacy: Approaching Johannine Ethics in Light of Plutarch’s Lives and the Progymnasmata Lindsey Trozzo 221 12. Creation, Ethics, and the Gospel of John Dorothy A. Lee 241 13. Virtue Ethics and the Johannine Writings Cornelis Bennema 261 Conclusion: Moving the Conversation Forward— Johannine Ethics in Prospect 283 Bibliography 287 Author Index 313