John and Philosophy : A New Reading of the Fourth Gospel PDF
Preview John and Philosophy : A New Reading of the Fourth Gospel
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi JOHN AND PHILOSOPHY OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi JOHN AND PHILOSOPHY A New Reading of the Fourth Gospel Troels Engberg-Pedersen 1 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OXDP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries ©TroelsEngberg-Pedersen Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin Impression: Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber: ISBN –––– PrintedinGreatBritainby ClaysLtd,StIvesplc LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi ForJonna OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi PREFACE This book is an act of retrieval. I aim to retrieve the text itself: from the many attempts to separate layers in it and the even more speculative attempts to situate such layers at various stages of the historical develop- mentoftheso-called‘Johanninecommunity’;andtoaprocessofrereading that focuses on the development of ideas within the text itself. Such a process must evidently rely on the broadest possible knowledge of the text’smanycontexts,buttheaimmustalwaysbetodrawonthesecontexts for heuristic purposes only in order to let them illuminate what the text itselfaimstosay. Any worthwhile book on such a hugely studied work as the Fourth Gospel must spring from some form of dissatisfaction with previous read- ings, or at least from a sense of remaining problems in the text that have not yet been tackled well enough in previous scholarship. Here I identify twosuchproblems.Ibelievetheyreflectageneralbafflementthatremains justbelowthesurfaceofmuchscholarlyanalysisofthisstrangetextandis probablysupposedtoberemovedbytheapproacheshintedatabove.First, thereisasenseofitsrepetitivecharacter:thatitalmostobsessivelyrepeats thesameideas,metaphors,andlocutionswithoutmakingitentirelyclear tothereaderwhatisaddedfromonemomenttothenext.Secondly,thereis a sense of its ‘riddling’ quality: that it gestures towards enigmas (the ‘mystery’ofthistext)whichitultimatelyleavesinthedark. ForalongtimeIhavemyselfsharedthesefeelings.However,onthebasis of an intensive study shaped by my knowledge of ancient philosophy, I have become convinced that the supposed repetitiveness always has a distinct point and that its aim is not to gesture towards any enigmas, but quitethecontrary,togenerateanabsoluteclarityinthereader.Johnaims for clarity (in the reader, that is)––at the same time as the lack of clarity, indeed, the pervasive lack of understanding in all those with whom Jesus engagesthroughouttheGospelisacrucialthemeofthetextasawhole. This book has had a long gestation. I have taught John for decades. In the middle of the s while I was finishing a book on Paul entitled Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul. The Material Spirit () I also began working on John. During that period, as I was working on Paul and the pneuma (‘spirit’) I also supervised a PhD thesis by Gitte OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi viii Preface Buch-Hansen on John, which focused on the concept of pneuma in John. Dr Buch-Hansen’s book was published in entitled »It is the Spirit that Gives Life«. A Stoic Understanding of Pneuma in John’s Gospel. I fully acknowledgeherethemutualgive-and-takethatwentintothatscholarly process.Ialsoexplicitlyrefertothisbookwhich,inthefootstepsofAdele Reinhartz’sconceptofa‘cosmologicaltale’intheFourthGospel(Reinhartz ), successfully develops the idea of a ‘meta-story of pneumatic trans- formations’intheGospelthatrunsfromthebaptismsceneinJohntothe resurrectionscenesinJohn.Thepresentbookadoptsadifferentstrategy, however.Istayclosertothegroundandattempttocoverthewholeofthe Gospelbyapplyingaso-called‘narrativephilosophical’approachthataims toshowhowJohn’snarrativeargumentproceedsstepbystep. IwasabletoworkseriouslyonthisbookfromonwardswhenIwas fortunatetodirect(togetherwithProfessorNielsHenrikGregersen,forthe period –) a Centre of Excellence entitled ‘Naturalism and Christian Semantics’, generously funded by the Rector of the University of Copen- hagen, Ralf Hemmingsen. I am grateful to the Rector for funding the centre, which gave me a wonderful chance to work on the relationship between Stoicism and Platonism in the New Testament period (see Engberg-Pedersen (ed.), From Stoicism to Platonism. The Development of Philosophy BCE– CE, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) and also on the present book. I am also grateful to the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Kirsten Busch Nielsen, who gave me a whole year’s research leave in before my retirement on February . The book was actuallywrittenbetweenJanuaryandJune.Thanksarealso duetotheDanishRoyalLibraryforitsprofessionalisminsecuringaccessto scholarshiponJohnthatinmanycaseshadtobeprocuredfromabroad,as well as to the various publishers of Engberg-Pedersen , a, b, , , and forthcoming for allowing me to reuse (in greatly changed form)materialfromthosearticles.Finally,IwishtothanktheMuseoCivico diSansepolcro,Tuscany,Italy,forallowingmetoreproduceonthecoverof the book a part of their magnificent Madonna della Misericordia by Piero della Francesca. I saw the painting in in Sansepolcro itself—Piero’s birthplace—and immediately decided that its representation of John the Evangelist would be highly suitable for the planned book. The Museo has generouslyhelpedtoputthisideaintopractice. OnceIbegantostudyJohnseriously,Iacquaintedmyselfwith(sizeable partsof)thehugescholarshiponJohnfromthesonwards(inparticu- lar,seeChapterI).IwashappytodiscoverthatJohanninescholarship is generally in excellent shape, not least as a result of the developments ‘post-Bultmann’ from the s onwards. Where one may feel in other parts of New Testament scholarship that the constant production of new commentariesleadstosurfeit,inJohn’scasenewdistinguishedcommentaries OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/12/2016,SPi Preface ix areconstantlybeingpublishedthatoffergenuinehelptotheavidreader.Here IwishtomentionthemasterfulworkonJohndonebythreeGermans,Jörg Frey,UdoSchnelle,andMichaelTheobald.Theircommandofthescholarly literatureismagisterial––andexceedinglyhelpfultotheirco-workers.InFrey and Schnelle one also finds a concentrated attempt to get away from the speculativeexcessesofhistoricalcriticism(whilebothfirmlyremainhistorical critics themselves). Theobald has not relinquished operating with layers in the text, but his insight and ‘ear’ are admirable, even when the text goes againsthisownpreferredreading. My first scholarly monograph (on Aristotle’s Ethics, Oxford University Press,)wasdedicatedtomybelovedwife,Jonna.Inadditiontosomuch else, she has been a constant support of my scholarly work over all those years,atthesametimeasshewasherselfengagedinequallytaxingwork, andwetogetherbroughtupourthreechildren,ofwhomwearesoproud: Anna, Anders, and Astrid. Coming full circle, I dedicate this new book to her,indeeploveandgratitude.
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