In recent times an area which has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention is the development of Christian doctrine, and in particular Christology. That Christology – whether in New Testament times or in the subsequent centuries – has undergone changes and developments of some sort, appears to be beyond question. However, the question of how and/or why doctrine develops has not been answered with any similar degree of consensus. This lack of consensus is perhaps nowhere more clearly visible than in the case of the Fourth Gospel. In the numerous recent attempts to trace the history of the ‘Johannine community’, appeals have been made by different scholars to the influence of diverse individuals, groups, cultures and ideas, each trying to explain thereby the link between the earliest traditions about Jesus and the distinctive portrait of him found in the Fourth Gospel. In the present work we will not be attempting to write a history of the Christian community or communities within which the Gospel took shape. We shall nonetheless seek insights from the realm of sociology in order to provide an explanatory mechanism for understanding the process of christological development evidenced in the final product we know as the Gospel according to John. This Gospel appears not only to have deep roots in early Jewish Christianity, but also to have been written by and/or for Christians who were in continuing dialogue with non-Christian Judaism.