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Reframing, transforming and deepening faith: John's pastoral response to a community in crisis
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TextPublication details: Johannesburg, South Africa South African Theological Seminary 2016Description: 259p PDF A4 Summary. Table of contents. Works citedSubject(s): Dissertation note: Doctor of Philosophy in Theology (PhD) South African Theological Seminary 2016 Summary: SUMMARY: This thesis begins with the observation that the Fourth Gospel presents a markedly different picture of Jesus compared to the one found in the Synoptic Gospels. This is clearly seen in the evangelist‘s selection of material, unique use of language and imagery, and his particular presentation of the Jesus tradition. How do we account for these differences?I begin by looking at what scholars have said concerning the community behind the Gospel, and highlight reasons to suggest that this was a community in crisis.The hypothesis I propose is that the Fourth Gospel is different to the Synoptics because the evangelist has reshaped the Jesus tradition in such a way as to address the spiritual and pastoral needs of this community in crisis. The core of this thesis is an exploration of the evangelist‘s strategic pastoral response to the Johannine community in crisis.Referring to the work done by the U S Department of Justice in their online publication of The Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual (Young 1998), I reflect on the effects of crises on spiritual beliefs. Young suggests that crises can serve as an attack on meaning systems and cause people to re-examine their beliefs. As a result, a person‘s faith can remain unchanged, or may be rejected, or it may become transformed(1998b).Applying these and other insights from the field of Social Work, Pastoral Counselling and Sociology, I show how we can use some of these concepts to understand something of what the evangelist is doing in the writing of John‘s Gospel. I present a simple three part model to demonstrate the evangelist‘s strategic pastoral response to the community in crisis –namely the reframing, transforming and deepening of faith.I select and exegete specific passages from the Gospel of John which I believe best illustrate these concepts. I end with what in my view is the glue that holds the evangelists three-fold pastoral response together –namely his presentation of ̳the other Paraclete‘. This, I suggest, is the evangelist‘s ultimate, unique and special contribution to the Jesus tradition. He (the Paraclete) is given as the rhetorical fulcrum of John‘s strategic pastoral intervention to address the needs of his community in crisis.I conclude that one of the possible reasons for John‘s Gospel being so different to the Synoptics is because at the heart of the Gospel we hear the voice of a pastor –his Gospel is fundamentally a pastoral document. He has reshaped the Jesus tradition and written a strategic response to the pastoral and spiritual needs of his community in crisis.In this way the Gospel itself fulfills the pastoral commission given to the early church in its concluding chapter: ―Feed my lambs‖; ―Tend my sheep‖; Feed my sheep‖ (Jn. 21:15-17).
| Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | URL | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
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Thesis
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South African Theological Seminary | Electronic Holdings | Link to Resource | Available | 0000000000215 |
Doctor of Philosophy in Theology (PhD) South African Theological Seminary 2016
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