Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity: A Missing Dimension in New Testament Studies

by Luke Timothy Johnson

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 1998

Overview

Luke Johnson here issues a provocative call for a radically new direction in New Testament studies that can change the way we have viewed the entire phenomenon of early Christianity. Johnson is convinced that the dominant ways of studying early Christianity tend to miss its specifically religious character, because of a disjunction between formal religion and “popular” religion. Through three case studies on baptism, glossolalia, and meals, he proposes to show how a more holistic, phenomenological approach can be made. His approach makes possible the inclusion of the world of healings, religious power, ecstasy, and spirit. This, he argues, is the religious experience of real persons in the study of early Christianity.

Johnson concludes that there is still much to be learned about early Christianity as a religion, if we can find a way to get at the category of real experience. He maintains that early Christian texts reflect lives that are caught up in and defined by a power not in their control but controlled instead by the crucified and raised Messiah Jesus.

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Key Features

• Calls for a new direction in New Testament studies
• Presents three case studies on baptism, glossolalia, and meals
• Examines the world of healings, religious power, ecstasy, and spirit

Contents

• What’s Missing From Christian Origins
• Getting At Christian Experience
• Ritual Imprinting and the Politics of Perfection
• Glossolalia and the Embarrassments
• Meals Are Where the Magic Is

Product Details

• Title: Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity: A Missing Dimension in New Testament Studies
• Author: Luke Timothy Johnson
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Print Publication Date: 1998
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. N.T. › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Experience (Religion) › History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600
• ISBNs: 0800631293, 9780800631291
• Resource ID: LLS:RLGSERLSTCHRSTNTY
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:46:46Z

About Luke Timothy Johnson

New Testament scholar and early Christianity historian, Luke Timothy Johnson (1943–), is the Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Professor Johnson earned his BA in Philosophy from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, an MDiv in Theology from Saint Meinrad School of Theology, an MA in Religious Studies from Indiana University, and his PhD in New Testament Studies from Yale University. A former Benedictine monk, Johnson has taught at Yale Divinity School and Indiana University. He is the author of more than 20 books, has published a large number of scholarly and popular articles, anthologies, book reviews, and other academic papers, and lectures and received several awards for excellence in teaching. He often lectures at universities and seminaries worldwide, where he is widely perceived as the leading conservative scholar on the debates surrounding the Jesus Seminar, taking stances against its view of Jesus.