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Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses Johannine Theosis: The Fourth Gospel's Narrative Ecclesiology of Participation and Deication BYERS, ANDREW,JASON How to cite: BYERS, ANDREW,JASON (2014) Johannine Theosis: The Fourth Gospel's Narrative Ecclesiology of Participation and Deication, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10908/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 JOHANNINE THEOSIS: The Fourth Gospel’s Narrative Ecclesiology of Participation and Deification Andrew J. Byers Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham 2014 Abstract Though John’s Gospel has been widely understood as ambivalent toward the idea of “church,” this thesis argues that ecclesiology is as central a Johannine concern as Christology. For the fourth evangelist, there is neither a Christless church nor a churchless Christ. Jesus is consistently depicted in the Gospel as a figure that destabilizes the social construct and generates a new communal entity. Rather than focusing on the community behind the text, the following study concentrates on the vision of community prescribed within the text. This vision is presented as a “narrative ecclesiology” by which the concept of “church” gradually unfolds throughout the Gospel’s sequence. Attending to this cumulative development, it will be argued that Johannine ecclesiology entails a corporate participation in the interrelation between the Father and Son, a participation helpfully described by the later patristic language of theosis. Before drawing on this theological discourse the thesis will provide exegesis on the theme of participation within the Prologue and the oneness motif. John 1:1–18 is recognized as one of the most influential Christological texts in early Christianity, but the passage’s Christology is inseparably bound to ecclesiology. The Prologue even establishes an “ecclesial narrative script”— an ongoing pattern of resocialization into the community around Jesus or, more negatively, of social re-entrenchment within the “world”—that governs the Gospel’s plot. The oneness theme functions within this script and draws on the Jewish theological language of the Shema: the Johannine claim to be “one” signifies that Christ-devotion does not constitute a departure from the “one God” of their Jewish religious tradition; moreover, to be “one” with this “one God” and his “one Shepherd” involves the believers’ participation within the divine family. Such participation warrants an ecclesial identity summed up in Jesus’ citation of Psalm 82: “you are gods.” 2 Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any format, including electronic and the Internet, without the author’s prior written consent. All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. 3 Statement of Declaration This work has been submitted to the University of Durham in accordance with the regulations for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It is my own work, and none of it has been submitted previously to the University of Durham or any other university for a degree. 4 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 2 Statement of Copyright ................................................................................................... 3 Statement of Declaration ................................................................................................. 4 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 10 Chapter 1. The Johannine Vision of Community: Trends, Approaches, and “Narrative Ecclesiology” ................................................................... 10 1. The Empty Search for a Formal Ecclesiology: Johannine Individualism and (Anti-) Institutionalism ......................................................................................................... 12 2. Ecclesiology as Etiology: Historical Reconstructions of the Johannine Community . 14 3. “Christocentricity”: The Eclipse of Ecclesiology by Christology .............................. 19 4. Ecclesiology as Sectarianism: The Relationship between Sociology and Theology ... 21 5. “Narrative Ecclesiology”: Gospel Writing as Group Identity Formation .................. 25 6. Brief Overview of the Project’s Structure ................................................................ 28 PART 1 | THE NARRATIVE ECCLESIOLOGY OF THE PROLOGUE: NO CHURCHLESS CHRIST, NOR CHRISTLESS CHURCH .............. 31 Chapter 2. The Inclusive Divine Community: The Prologue’s Reinterpretation of God and God’s People ........................................... 32 1. Introduction to Part 1 ............................................................................................ 32 2. The Prologue’s Relationship to the Rest of the Gospel ............................................ 33 3. Reconceiving God: The Communal Vision of “Dyadic Theology” (John 1:1–2, 18) .. 35 3.1 Plurality and Filiation in Johannine Theology ................................................................ 36 3.2 Μονογενὴς θεός and Dyadic Theology’s Plurality and Unity .............................................. 39 4. Reconceiving God’s People: Foundations of a Participatory Ecclesiology (John 1:3b–4; 9–18) ........................................................................................................................ 41 4.1 Derivative Anthropology and the Inclusive Divine Community (John 1:3b–4a; 9–18) ...... 42 4.2 Evidence for the Prologue’s Reinterpretation of the People of God ................................. 48 4.2.1 The Irony of Rejection in John 1:10–11 ................................................................... 49 4.2.2 The Negations in John 1:13 ..................................................................................... 49 4.2.3 The Contrast between the Formation of the Children of God and the Formation of Israel at Sinai .................................................................................................................. 50 5. Chapter Summary ................................................................................................. 52 5 Chapter 3. The Ecclesiology of Filiation and the Incarnation ................. 53 1. The Ecclesiology of Divine-Human Filiation: Disambiguation and Intercalation ..... 53 1.1 Disambiguation and Filiation in the Prologue’s Structure ............................................... 54 1.1.1 Jesus: From the Logos to the Child in the Father’s Bosom ....................................... 55 1.1.2 God: From Creator to the Father Embracing a Child ............................................... 56 1.1.3 Humanity: From a General “All” to the “We All” of a Divine Family ........................ 57 1.1.4 Ecclesiology’s Critical Function in the Process of Disambiguation ........................... 58 1.2 The Intercalation of Divine-Human Filiation .................................................................. 60 1.3 Divine-Human Filiation as Participatory Ecclesiology: A Brief Summary ......................... 62 2. The Ecclesiology of the Incarnation: Divine-Human Exchange and the Paired “Becomings” (John 1:12–14) ...................................................................................... 64 2.1 Paired “Becomings”: The Correspondence between the Formation of God’s Children and the Incarnation ................................................................................................................... 65 2.2 Conjunction and Disjunction within 1:12–14 in the History of Interpretation ................. 68 2.2.1 Patristic Interpreters and Conjunction Between the “Becomings” ............................. 69 2.2.2 Twentieth Century Interpretation and Disjunction between the “Becomings” ........... 71 3. Chapter Summary ................................................................................................. 75 Chapter 4. Characterizing the Prologue’s Ecclesiology: The Ambiguation and Assimilation of John the Baptist ................................................... 76 1. John the Baptist as Christological Witness in the Prologue ..................................... 76 2. Ambiguation in the Identity and Voice of John the Baptist ..................................... 78 3. Christological Witness and Ecclesial Confession: John as a Representative of Both Israel and Johannine Christianity ............................................................................... 82 4. John the Baptist as Ecclesial Catalyst ....................................................................
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