Ethics In The Gospel Of John Discipleship As Moral Progress -- By: Sookgoo Shin
Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 68:1 (NA 2017)
Article: Ethics In The Gospel Of John Discipleship As Moral Progress
Author: Sookgoo Shin
TynBull 68:1 (2017) p. 153
Ethics In The Gospel Of John
Discipleship As Moral Progress1
This study seeks to challenge the dominant scholarly view of John’s ethics as an ineffective and unhelpful companion for moral formation. The Gospel of John has been an unwelcome outsider when it comes to the discussion of ethics since it has been accused of being morally bankrupt, not ethical enough to be included in New Testament ethics, and a puzzling book – indeed, a major challenge – for ethical enquiry. No one has been, however, more sceptical about the value of John’s ethics than Wayne Meeks, whose criticisms have contributed significantly to this negative view. In order to demonstrate the inadequacy of such claims, this study aims to identify the undergirding ethical dynamic that shapes John’s moral structure by bringing out the implicit ethical elements that are embedded throughout John’s narratives, and thus suggests a way to read the whole Gospel ethically and appreciatively of its literary characteristics.
Chapter 1 surveys recent scholarship on John’s ethics and categorises the works into three distinguishable groups based on their general methodological objectives: 1) The Role of the Law in John’s Ethics; 2) Exploring Possible Conceptual or Historical Backgrounds for John’s Ethics; 3) Linguistic–Semantic Analysis of Johannine Terms to Expose Hidden Ethical Meanings. The overview of recent literature on John’s ethics identifies the primary reasons that make the study of John’s ethics problematic: John does not use the ethical language that is commonly found in other New Testament books, and most of the terms we find in the Gospel have been understood either theologically or christologically. Furthermore, there are no ethical chapters in the Gospel of John like the Sermon on the Mount or the paraenetic sections
TynBull 68:1 (2017) p. 154
in Paul’s letters; ethical elements are spread throughout the Gospel so that it can seem almost impossible to find a single ethical idea that can capture John’s overall moral paradigm. In light of these difficulties, a survey of recent scholarship on John’s ethics suggests that the main aim of this study should be to examine whether ethical values or implications can be drawn out from John’s narratives, which are heavily laden with Christo-theological dimensions.
Chapter 2 explores extensively the moral landscape of the Graeco-Roman world and argues that the ancients had a vastly different moral framework, which would obviously cause difficulty for modern readers trying to draw ethical implications from ancient literature like John’s Gospel. Based on such fin...
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