John: An Introduction and Study Guide: History, Community, and Ideology

Description

This study guide introduces gospel of John, also known as the Fourth Gospel, from an ideological perspective. First, Lozada deals with the key historical questions about how we come to understand John's historical identity. Lozada explores debates around how scholars construct a picture of who, where, when, and why John was written helping readers to recognize how scholars construct an historical identity for John. Second, Lozada introduces literary questions related to John such as its structure, plot, and narrative development, showing readers on how an ideological reading is constructed. Finally Lozada devotes three chapters to key ideological themes in the gospel related to otherness, such as the portrayal of women, the Samaritan woman, and "the Jews."

Francisco Lozada is the Charles Fischer Catholic Associate Professor of New Testament Studies and Latino/a Church Studies at Brite Divinity School, USA.

This book is a lucid vade mecum to John's Gospel with a difference. While offering succinct treatments of the main critical issues, it is profoundly committed to uncovering how Johannine interpretation is ideologically shaped by contemporary issues, especially power and identity. The methodological self-consciousness Francisco Lozada deploys both opens up John's Gospel in unexpected ways and also allows it to speak to our own times with renewed power. Particularly engaging is his amplification of voices from the borderlands-of those caught in the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion. To acquaint, or reacquaint, yourself with John, you should read this book. * Philip F. Esler, University of Gloucestershire, UK *