Reading John (Cascade Companions)

by Christopher W. Skinner

Publisher:

Cascade

, 2015

Overview

The Gospel of John is often found at the center of discussions about the Bible and its relation to Christian theology. It is difficult to quantify the impact John’s Gospel has had on both the historical development of Christian doctrine and the various expressions of Christian devotion. All too often, however, readers have failed to understand the Gospel as an autonomous text with its own unique story to tell. More often than not, the Gospel of John is swept into a reading approach that either conflates or attempts to harmonize with other accounts of Jesus’ life.

This book emphasizes the uniqueness of John’s story of Jesus and attempts to provide readers with a road map for appreciating the historical context and literary features of the text. The aim of this guide is to help others become better, more perceptive readers of the Gospel of John, with an ability to trace the rhetoric of the narrative from beginning to end.

Key Features

• Emphasizes the uniqueness of John’s story of Jesus
• Provides a road map for appreciating the historical context and literary features of the text
• Helps you become abetter, more perceptive reader of the Gospel of John

Contents

• Reading John: Where to Start?
• John’s Prologue: The Interpretive Key for Reading the Gospel of John
• A Tale of Two Stories: John’s Two-Level Drama
• John, Jesus, and Judaism: Is the Gospel of John Jewish and Anti-Jewish at the Same Time? (Or, Is the Gospel of John Schizophrenic?)
• An Alien Tongue: The Foreign Language of the Johannine Jesus
• John’s Characters and the Rhetoric of Misunderstanding
• Putting the Pieces Together: Reading John 3:1–21
• Postscript: Reading John Theologically?

Endorsements

Studying or teaching John? Reading John takes anyone interested in learning to read the Gospel of John and leads them step by step on a delightful journey into its strange and wonderful landscape, with the result that each chapter builds reading competence. Skinner is impressive as a teacher and guide, equally at home in the ancient world, the Gospel of John, and twenty-first-century culture, and he has a keen ear for the nuances of each. This guide is ideal for Bible study groups and college classes.

—R. Alan Culpepper, dean, McAfee School of Theology

In this fresh introduction to John, Christopher Skinner treats readers of John to some of the most valuable of recent approaches to the Fourth Gospel clearly and succinctly. Embracing the narrative through the lens of the Prologue, appreciating the sketching of characters, understanding misunderstandings, and seeing John as a two-level drama afford new insights that would otherwise be lost. Here we see John’s theological, historical, and literary riddles addressed in helpful and compelling ways; Skinner’s readers will not be disappointed!

—Paul N. Anderson, professor of biblical and Quaker studies, George Fox University

Product Details

• Title: Reading John
• Author: Christopher W. Skinner
• Series: Cascade Companions
• Publisher: Cascade
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Pages: 164
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. N.T. John › Criticism, interpretation, etc
• ISBNs: 9781610978033, 161097803X
• Resource ID: LLS:CASCADEREADINGJN
• Resource Type: text.monograph.study-guide
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:30:22Z

About Christopher W. Skinner

Christopher W. Skinner is associate professor of religion at the University of Mount Olive in North Carolina. He is the author of several books, including Characters and Characterization in the Gospel of John, What Are They Saying About the Gospel of Thomas, and Mark as Story: Retrospect and Prospect.