Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 35:1 (Apr 2023)
Article: Book Review: "In Jesus’ Name: Johannine Prayer in Ethical, Missional, and Eschatological Perspective"
Author: Anonymous

Conspectus 35:1 (April 2023) p. 99

Book Review: In Jesus’ Name: Johannine Prayer in Ethical, Missional, and Eschatological Perspective

Adams, Scott. 2022. In Jesus’ Name: Johannine Prayer in Ethical, Missional, and Eschatological Perspective. Eugene: Pickwick. xiv + 98 pp. ISBN: 978–1- 6667–3241–2. Approx. 364.10 ZAR ($20 USD). Paperback.

With his second book on prayer in the Johannine tradition, Scott Adams builds on the foundation he laid with his earlier study, Prayer in John’s Farewell Discourse: An Exegetical Investigation (Pickwick, 2020). In his more recent monograph, aptly titled, In Jesus’ Name, Adams compares the perspective on prayer presented in John’s Farewell Discourse (John 14–16) with attitudes reflected in other portions of the Johannine corpus, specifically 1 John, 3 John, and Revelation. Adams’s goal is not to argue for a particular understanding of the authorship of these biblical texts (though he does see them as part of a connected tradition). Rather, Adams seeks to illuminate the message concerning prayer found in these inspired writings by analyzing and comparing them. In this way, Adams is able to isolate distinctive aspects, while also highlighting important points of continuity. The result is a concise, informative, and edifying analysis of prayer in Johannine perspective. As with his earlier book, In Jesus’ Name is marked by helpful interaction with current scholarship, solid exegesis, and informed theological reflection. Additionally, this book reflects the breadth of Adams’s own ministry. Adams serves on the faculty of the Regent University School of Divinity (Virginia) and as the lead pastor at the Midtown Location of Our Savior’s Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. Thus, he has one foot in the world of the academy and one in the church. Adams beautifully blends the academic and the pastoral in this recent volume with his eye for application, which is highlighted most clearly in his final chapter on contemporary application. This quality, in addition to the rhetorical power of Adams’s prose, makes In Jesus’ Name valuable for pastors and parishioners as well as scholars.

In Jesus’ Name begins with the foundation (ch. 2); the way in which prayer functions in the Gospel of John and, more specifically, in the Farewell Discourse (FD). Prayer in the FD is “motivated by esteem for Jesus’ name and all that his name represents.” As a result, Johannine prayer flows from “the disciples’ relationship with Jesus” (p. 17). Adams explains, “Praying on the basis of one’s union with [Christ] not only involves making petitions according to the motivation of love as assumed in the Decalogue, but it involves making requests on the basis of Jesus’ words and example (