Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I THE METHOD OF NARRATIVE CRITICISM AND THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
- PART II AN APPLICATION OF THE METHOD OF NARRATIVE CRITICISM TO JOHN 18–19
- Introduction
- 5 A practical criticism of John 18–19
- 6 A genre criticism of John 18–19
- 7 A sociological reading of John 18–19
- 8 A narrative-historical approach to John 18–19
- Conclusion
- References
- Index of names and subjects
7 - A sociological reading of John 18–19
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I THE METHOD OF NARRATIVE CRITICISM AND THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
- PART II AN APPLICATION OF THE METHOD OF NARRATIVE CRITICISM TO JOHN 18–19
- Introduction
- 5 A practical criticism of John 18–19
- 6 A genre criticism of John 18–19
- 7 A sociological reading of John 18–19
- 8 A narrative-historical approach to John 18–19
- Conclusion
- References
- Index of names and subjects
Summary
Ecclesial imagery in the Johannine passion account
Having exposed the Johannine passion account to practical and genre criticism (the two aspects of the synchronic approach to NT narratives), we now come to the first diachronic approach to John's story. When we approach a text such as John 18–19, narrative criticism is concerned not only with literary qualities and deep generic structures, but also with the function of John's narrative Christology in its original, proposed social milieu. I recognize that the task of identifying the social function of narrative has sometimes been a rather arbitrary and subjective exercise. One of the problems with Johannine redaction criticism is that it tends to allegorize details of the gospel into incidents from the community's reconstructed history. In chapter 3, I indicated the circularity of this thinking, and the disrespect for Jesus-history which such approaches entail. Instead of treating John's story as an allegory of community history, I suggested a more cautious method in which rigorous literary analysis and sociological explanation work together in harmony. For example, instead of regarding John 9 as an allegory of an incident in the life of John's community (in which a Christian minister runs foul of the Jamnia edict by healing a Jew and leading him to Christ), I would want to begin with a close analysis of the language in the narrative and then infer its plausible sociological function in the Johannine Sitz im Leben.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- John as StorytellerNarrative Criticism and the Fourth Gospel, pp. 148 - 167Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992