Johannine studies

Review: Life in the Son

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Life in the Son (New Studies in Biblical Theology #61), Clive Bowsher. Downers Grove and London: IVP Academic/Apollos, 2023 (UK publisher link).

Summary: A study of the idea of “in one another” participation in the Johannine literature.

The idea of union, oneness, of participation in Christ has been a significant discussion in Pauline studies. In this monograph, Clive Bowsher explores this same idea in the Johannine literature, particularly in the various references to God, Christ, and believers being “in one another.” After setting out the current discussions and his approach, Bowsher exegetes the relevant passages first in the gospel of John and then in 1 John. His approach is to focus on what each says individually rather than reading them in light of each other. Then he takes the findings from each study and synthesizes them, finding similar themes in both the gospel and the letter.

He then considers the journey theme in the gospel of John and the letters and traces our participation with Christ in that journey: begotten–walking–suffering and laying down life–resurrection–going to the Father. Following this, Bowsher considers “one anotherness” in the eschatological culmination of the covenant: life everlasting in the age to come. Finally, he pulls together the Johannine theology of participation from these various approaches. There are several salient ideas running through the Johannine literature:

  • Union with Christ or oneness is expressed in terms of the one-anotherness of the Father, Son, and believers.
  • That in-one-anotherness is evident in intimate loving relationship and loving obedience.
  • This union is closely correlated with the life of the age to come.
  • The propitiatory work of God in Christ and his resurrection is the source of this union.
  • Union in Christ means sharing in his missional journey from commencement to walking to destination, sharing in proclaiming his words, his suffering, sacrificial laying down of one’s life, and resurrection.

In appendices, Bowsher briefly interacts with the Pauline idea of union and of oneness and participation in Revelation. He also offers an original language analysis of John 14:15-24 and the “Hortatory-imperatival use of the third-person indicative in New Testament Greek outside 1 John.”

If I were to make one quibble, it would be that the structure of the study results in the repetition of the same ideas or slight variations of them through much of the work. The shared journey part of the study is the one place where this is less the case. What Bowsher does do is elucidate a Johannine perspective of participation that, while consonant with Paul, uniquely emphasizes loving relationship and the close connection between being in that relationship and having entered into the reality of the life of the age to come. This work, as part of a renewal of Johannine studies, is a welcome complement to the extensive Pauline literature, not least on union or participation with Christ.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Spirituality According to John

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Spirituality According to John, Rodney Reeves. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2022.

Summary: Through an imaginative study of the gospel, letters, and Revelation of John, considers what it means to abide in Christ, coming to faith, living communally in Christ, and facing the tribulations of the end of the world.

In my observation, it seems that much of our instruction in Christian discipleship, if there is such instruction, centers around the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and the letters of Paul and maybe James, if we are up for the challenge. Of the writings attributed to John, we sometimes commend (or at least used to) the Gospel of John as reading for those considering Christ. Revelation we either shy away from altogether or use it to springboard into end times speculations. And John’s letters? Mostly, it seems we use a few verses like 1 John 1:9 as memory verses but give them little attention.

In this work, Rodney Reeves reclaims the canonical writings attributed to John as valuable in the shaping of our spiritual life. For Reeves, it centers around the world “abide”–what it means to make our home in Christ both individually and communally, and in his Word, which abides in us, enabling us to incarnate the person and work of Christ in the world. For the Gospel, the Letters, and Revelation, Reeves follows a fourfold pattern as he considers how we abide in Christ and his Word abides in us involving hearing the Word, confessing the Word, incarnating the Word, and abiding in the Word.

The Gospel of John is the invitation to follow the Word home. We hear this in Jesus response to the disciples question, “where are you staying?” with his invitation to “come and see.” Come and see gives way to “See and believe” as Jesus invites Martha to confess the power of Jesus to raise Lazarus and as Jesus invites Thomas to see and believe and Thomas confesses him Lord and God and worships. “Believe and see” flips the previous words, inviting the nobleman to return home with only the word of Jesus that his son would be well and the blind man to wash the mud out of his eyes, believing that he would see. They incarnate the word of Jesus, taking it in and living it out and discover its truth. Two women, filled with the word of Jesus abide in it. The Samaritan woman tells her townspeople to see a man who told her everything she had ever done and come to him, becoming the first evangelist in the gospels. Mary at Bethany proclaims Jesus as the anointed king who will die, also saying “see and come.”

The Letters of John, written to communities, speak of how we may commune with the Word together. Hearing the Word together moves the community from self-justification to confession of sin, recognizing that we cannot hate and say we love Christ. In turn, we confess that Jesus alone is the Christ, the anointed one, denying the worldly competitors that vie for our allegiance, recognizing them for what they are “anti-Christ.” The Word is incarnated in our communities by our love for each other and our hospitality to strangers, in contrast with Diotrephes. We abide together in the Word by loving without fear and protecting ourselves from idols, the worship of heroes or anything that supplants our love for Jesus, the source of our love for each other.

John’s Revelation instructs us in how we might remain in the Word until the end of the world–especially when that world is a counterwitness to the Word. The Word we hear in Revelation is a call to worship the Lion who is the worthy Lamb who was slain. Our confession of the Word is a declaration of war. Worship is warfare against the systemic evil of the world, joining, if need be, the two prophets slain and raised, in refusing complicity in the worship of idols. Incarnating the Word, is following the Lamb, including being slain rather than seeking the power of the evil one that promises success and power. We abide in the Lamb by looking for the new heaven and the new earth rather than placing hope in Babylon, which in our day, the author argues, is hopes in American greatness.

There is a strong challenge in the latter part of this book to the political idolatries of both left and right with the invitation to “come out from her, my people.” I’ve been asked whether we are living in the time of the Apocalypse, something any perceptive person might wonder with a global pandemic, rapidly warming and less habitable planet, insurrections, war, discord, economic collapse, and rampant inflation. Reeves concludes with posing for us the question that is most vital, and in line with his theme:

“The Apocalypse is not only a revelation at the end of the world; it is a revelation of the church at the end of the world. God knew that, as we watched the world fall apart around us, we would need to see our place in a crumbling world. When the earth quakes at the weight of glory, when heaven shakes earth to its core, when idols are destroyed and the kingdoms of men fall, when pandemics threaten humanity, when all creation is purified of evil and all that is left is what God has made, where will the church abide?” (p. 257).

Will we abide in the Word of Jesus, in Jesus himself, alone? That is both the question and the invitation posed by this book.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Johannine Theology

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Johannine TheologyJohannine Theology, Paul A. Rainbow. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: A comprehensive treatment of the Johannine corpus that assumes a common source and explores the theology of these books in light of the major relationships between persons divine and human, and of those persons with regard to the church and the world.

Of the books that have been written . What Paul Rainbow has done in this volume is to summarize some of the most significant scholarship and questions in this area of biblical theology. A basic assumption of the book is a common authorship of the Gospel and Epistles of John and the Apocalypse (Revelation). Rainbow adopts as his “working assumption” that the Apostle John is the common author of these texts. In fact, one of the later discussions in the book argues strongly that John was a churchman and not a sectarian, against the “Johannine sectarian” approach to this corpus.

Rainbow takes the interesting approach of delineating the theology of this corpus as a theology of personal relationships, and he synthesizes the teaching of all parts of the corpus under these headings. Following his introduction in chapter 1 where he outlines approaches to Johannine theology and scholarship, including his own, he follows this plan, which he summarizes in chapter 10, which considers the relationship of the church to the world:

“God the Father (chap. 2) loves God the Son eternally (chap. 4) and is united to him by God the Spirit (chap. 6). He also loves the world that he made, despite its rebellion toward him (chap. 3). He sent his Son to show his love supremely by making propitiation for the world’s sin on the cross (chap. 5). The Son, on returning to glory, sent the Spirit to indwell his disciples (chap. 6) so that they might abide in the Son, both individually (chaps. 7-8) and corporately (chap. 9) until he comes again (p. 399).

There are times where the reading of this work is heavy going when the author is summarizing passage after passage as it contributes to a particular theme. My suggestion here is that such material is probably most helpfully read by looking up the passages and giving careful thought and reflection to their import. What is clear is that this process often leads to insight on the part of the author who may “zoom out” with insights on the relations of the divine persons, discussions of the procession of the Spirit and the controversy of churches East and West, a defense of propitiation, the blessedness of eternal life and union in Christ, the life of abiding in Christ, and the nature of the Church and its relationship with a World that often hates the followers of Christ as it does Christ.

What is interesting is that rather than provide a separate chapter on “eschatology” the author weaves eschatological concerns throughout the book, as he considers the relation of the Triune God to a fallen world, explores the redemptive work of Christ, the hope of the believer, and the mission of the Church. This is consistent with his approach that integrates consideration of The Apocalypse with the rest of the Johannine material, rather than bracketing it off to itself.

One comes away from this work with the sense of having sat with someone who has soaked deeply in the Johannine material and seen connections most of us may miss in our readings or studies of the separate books. More than simply biblical study, however, this is truly biblical theology in the sense that it works from the biblical material to explore what this material discloses of the character and workings of God, and how humans may indeed relate to him and to one another through Christ. Rainbow’s careful and extensive study lays out a banquet for any who will come to the table!