Читать книгу Meditations on According to John - Herold Weiss - Страница 2

Praise for Meditations on According to John

Dr. Herold Weiss’ meditations on the Gospel of John will surprise no one familiar with his other valuable contributions to our understanding of the message of Scripture and of Christian faith. As he has throughout a half century of scholarship, teaching, preaching and writing, he here brings to focus his richly informed familiarity with the best in contemporary scholarship on the New Testament and his gifted sensitivity to the spiritual intent of the Fourth Gospel. His book will open the eyes of many to new riches in this Gospel.

Earle Hilgert, Professor of New Testament, emeritus

McCormick Theological Seminary

Meditations on According to John draws readers enticingly into the theological world of John’s Gospel. Herold Weiss, a gifted guide, explores this world through the lens of theological and devotional reflection, which Weiss finds rooted in the traditional understanding of “meditations” on the Scriptures. Although engagingly brief, each chapter contains rich insights into key phrases from the gospel which serve as his chapter titles. Weiss shows how a phrase in one part of the gospel illuminates theological concepts that are crucial to the whole work. The interdisciplinary nature of Weiss’ approach enhances the theological insights by placing them in their philosophical and cultural milieu as well as within their literary context. Fascinated by the ways According to John gives readers a window into the faith of particular Christian communities living at the end of the first century, Weiss helps contemporary readers listen more carefully to the nuances and unique contributions of that faith. His meditations, like the gospel stories and discourses themselves, invite re-readings. Familiar stories become new again, calling for further meditation. I look forward to reading this book with my students, challenged to embrace the life of the “realm above” that shaped the faith of the Johannine community.

Kendra Haloviak Valentine

Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, La Sierra University

When Weiss walks you through the Gospel of John, the maze turns to amazement. You will discover another world with all the favorable conditions for a better life.

Abraham Terian, Professor of Early Christianity

and Dean, emeritus, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary

Just as Philip invites Nathaniel to consider who Jesus is in the Gospel of John by saying “come and see,” Herold Weiss invites readers to do likewise by engaging important passages from that gospel. Weiss’ “meditations” are exegetical reflections on the fourth gospel that convey his learning, insights, and interests that have been developed over a long career studying the sacred writings of ancient Israel and early Christianity in their historical contexts. In this way, Meditations on According to John offers fruits of historical-critical study on the fourth gospel to non-specialists without unnecessary scholarly jargon, while simultaneously proposing fresh interpretations for today. Weiss’s book is a welcome contribution to all those interested in “meditating” on the fourth gospel and on its presentation of Jesus.

John Fotopoulos, Associate Professor of Religious Studies

Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN

Weiss is the perfect guide into the world of this notoriously difficult gospel, and the book’s structure—a series of meditations on its theology—turns out to be a rich and rewarding way to enter into it, if not ideal. Weiss walks the reader through the complex symbolic world of the fourth gospel, carefully revealing some of the sometimes surprising threads that run through it and at the same time situating the text within the larger contexts of emerging early Christianity, Judaism, and the larger Greco-Roman world. Weiss has a knack for unpacking and explaining the complex philosophical ideas and cultural backgrounds that prove essential to making sense of this gospel.

Ruben Dupertuis, Associate Professor of Religion

Trinity University, San Antonio, TX