Darkness, Christ, and the Church in the Fourth Gospel
The Fourth Gospel, like Mark and Luke, makes no mention of the word ecclesia; but does John, nevertheless, have a doctrine of the Church which he develops with other terms; and if so, how does he conceive it + Schlatter held that John had no parallel to the richly developed Pauline teaching on the C...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
1961
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| In: |
Scottish journal of theology
Year: 1961, Volume: 14, Issue: 2, Pages: 172-193 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Fourth Gospel, like Mark and Luke, makes no mention of the word ecclesia; but does John, nevertheless, have a doctrine of the Church which he develops with other terms; and if so, how does he conceive it + Schlatter held that John had no parallel to the richly developed Pauline teaching on the Church. E. F. Scott, however, has shown that one of the important purposes of the Fourth Gospel was to seek for the true nature of the Church instituted by Jesus. According to Scott John thought of the Church as both a spiritual, mystical community and an outward institution. John's interest in the Church has been confirmed by more recent interpreters such as R. Newton Flew and R. H. Strachan, and C. K. Barrett believes that John more clearly than any other Gospel shows an awareness of the existence of the Church. Bultmann also recognises this concern of the Fourth Gospel but stresses that it has no designation at all for ‘Church’ in the singular number. The Church is a collection of gathered individuals whose unity is primarily the unity of each individual with Christ. The purpose of this paper will be to show from an interpretation of relevant passages that John conceives of the Church as a unity in a more organic sense than a collection of individuals, and the attempt will also be made to show that John's analysis of man's existential predicament implies the need for an organic community. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-3065 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Scottish journal of theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0036930600020561 |