John - Jesus - History A program unit of the Society of Biblical Literature

Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher, eds. John, Jesus, and History, Volume 1: Critical Appraisals of Critical Views. Atlanta: SBL, 2007. - NEW in October 2007

The essays in this book, reflecting the ongoing deliberations of an international group of Johannine and Jesus scholars, critically assess two primary assumptions of the prevalent view: the de-historicization of John and the de-Johannification of Jesus.  In addition to offering state-of-the-art reviews of Johannine studies and Jesus studies, this volume draws together an emerging consensus that sees the Gospel of John as an autonomous tradition with its own perspective, in dialogue with other traditions. Through this challenging of critical and traditional assumptions alike, new approaches to John’s age-old riddles emerge, and the ground is cleared for new and creative ways forward.

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Tom Thatcher, ed. What We Have Heard from the Beginning: The Past, Present and Future of Johannine Studies. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007. - NEW in October 2007

The past fifty years have seen powerful shifts in the methods and objectives of Biblical Studies. The study of the Johannine Literature, in particular, has seen a proliferation of new approaches, as well as innovative exegetical and theological conclusions. This volume surveys the emerging landscape from the perspective of scholars who have shaped the field. Written in a conversational and reflective tone, the articles offer an excellent overview of major issues in the study of the Fourth Gospel and 1-2-3 John.

"What Thatcher has produced is a unique composite of two disparate genres: the history of research and the professional memoir. The result is a book that is both deeply informative and utterly fascinating." - Wayne Meeks, Yale University

"What We Have Heard recognizes that biblical scholarship is done by real people, whose interests and perspectives change over time. It is not an abstract discipline." - Craig Koester, Luther Seminary

Online information on this book from the publisher's website -- or -- Content Samples from Google Books website

Paul N. Anderson. The Fourth Gospel and the Quest for Jesus. New York: T&T Clark, 2006.

Paul Anderson's new book grows directly out of the John, Jesus, and History project, and it also provides something of a basis on which other work may build. Part II was presented at the 2002 sessions under the title, "Why This Study Is Needed, and Why It Is Needed Now," assessing strengths and weaknesses of six planks in each of the two primary platforms being analyzed: the dehistoricization of John and the deJohannification of Jesus. It then poses a new synthesis of John's distinctive relations to each of the Synoptic traditions, especially making innovative suggestions regarding the Johannine tradition's relations to the Markan and Lukan traditions. Combined with a modest two-edition theory of composition, this theory of Johannine-Synoptic Interfluentiality is sure to make a contribution to the larger interests of tradition-history analyses.

Part IV poses a nuanced assessment of which aspects of the Synoptic tradition are superior historically to John's and which aspects of the Johannine tradition are superior to Synoptic presentations. Eight considerations are proposed for each, and eight additional aspects of multiple attestation in all four Gospels are presented in "bi-optic" perspective. Parts I and V provide reviews of significant trends in Johannine and Jesus studies, and they present Anderson's larger set of views involving the "dialogical autonomy" of the Fourth Gospel, including its literary, historical, and theological implications. Just as the dialectical character of John's distinctive Christology evoked some of the major controversies of the Patristic era, the dialogical character of John's presentation of Jesus has produced some of the most enduring impasses in the Modern era. While a conjunctive approach to theology provided a way forward many centuries ago for theology, it has yet to be comprehensively applied to John's historical and literary conundrums. This study attempts to do so.

Tom Thatcher. Why John Wrote a Gospel: Jesus-Memory-History. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2005.

Thatcher’s book applies recent theories of social memory and literacy to answer the question, Why did John write a gospel? While past studies have answered this question in terms of the Fourth Gospel’s major theological themes, this volume reflects on the reasons why John might have thought that a written book about Jesus would be a particularly useful way of addressing community experiences.

Parts 1 and 2 discuss the social functions of writing in the ancient world and analyze passages in the Fourth Gospel that reveal John’s thinking about memory and tradition, concluding that John most likely wrote a gospel not only to preserve data about Jesus but also to exploit ancient attitudes toward written texts. Despite the fact that John believed the Church’s memory of Jesus was guided and preserved by the Spirit, a written gospel would add rhetorical weight and prestige to his claims about Christ.

Part 3 explores the historical context of the Fourth Gospel in order to determine why John might have found a written gospel useful. Thatcher applies models of dogmatic, mystical, and counter-memory to argue that John was likely locked in a debate with the Anti-Christs mentioned in 1-2-3 John, a group that rejected John’s interpretation of the Jesus tradition in light of their own experience of the Paraclete.

Part 4 discusses the most substantial differences between living social memories and written history books to outline reasons why a written gospel would be particularly useful to John and his disciples in their debates with the Anti-Christs. The final chapter extends the implications of the study to several related issues, including a review of the Developmental Approach to the Fourth Gospel’s composition and the potential value of the Fourth Gospel as a source for the Historical Jesus.

Download the Book Announcement Flyer (pdf file) -- or -- Order this book from the Publisher's Website

Return to the Homepage of the JOHN - JESUS - HISTORY Group

This website is sponsored by the Steering Committee of the John-Jesus-History Group.

For questions about the John-Jesus-History Group, please contact the Co-chair of the Steering Committee:
Prof. Tom Thatcher, Cincinnati Christian University, tom.thatcher--at--ccuniversity.edu

For comments about this website, please contact Felix Just, SJ, fjust--at--calprov.org

This page was last updated on November 18, 2007
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