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Johannine Ethics

In Christopher Skinner, Ethics, Fortress Press, Gospel of John, Johannine Epistles, John, Matt N. Williams, NT Ethics, Sherri Brown on July 13, 2018 at 1:34 am

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2018.07.10 | Christopher Skinner and Sherri Brown (eds). Johannine Ethics: The Moral World of the Gospel and Epistles of John. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2017. 319 pp.

Reviewed by Matt N. Williams, Durham University.

This volume sees Fortress Press enter the debate surrounding Johannine ethics, a debate that has been increasingly active since the 2012 German publication of Rethinking the Ethics of John. As the editors, Christopher Skinner and Sherri Brown, make clear in their introduction and conclusion, the whole question of John’s ethics is turning out to be far more fertile ground for research than traditionally assumed. This corresponds to Alan Culpepper’s analysis of the situation two decades ago, which perceived this as a general shift of focus in John scholarship. The early preoccupation with theological matters was overtaken by historical matters and now ethical ones in response to society-wide moral concerns regarding pluralism and ‘the Jews’ especially. Read the rest of this entry »


Letters from the Pillar Apostles

In 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Canon, Catholic Epistles, Darian LOCKETT, James, Johannine Epistles, Jude, Kelsie Rodenbiker, Pickwick, review on July 18, 2017 at 5:32 pm

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2017.07.15 | Darian R. Lockett. Letters from the Pillar Apostles: The Formation of the Catholic Epistles as a Canonical Collection. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2017. ISBN: 9781620327562.

Reviewed by Kelsie Rodenbiker, Durham University, UK.

In Letters from the Pillar Apostles, Lockett is concerned to establish the early legitimacy of the Catholic Epistles (CE) as a historically and hermeneutically plausible canonical collection and thus an equal New Testament (NT) sub-corpus alongside the fourfold Gospel and Pauline epistles (pp. xvii, xviii). Noting an oft-assumed discontinuity, Lockett states, “[r]ather than emphasizing composition (usually associated with the historical-critical approach) or canonization (associated with subsequent, ecclesial, and theological judgments) at the expense of the other, this project considers both in dialectical relationship” in order to demonstrate “that the process of editing, collecting, and arranging of these seven texts is neither anachronistic to their meaning nor antagonistic to their very composition” (p. xvi). Read the rest of this entry »