Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 69:2 (NA 2018)
Article: Moral Transformation Through Mimesis In The Johannine Tradition
Author: Cornelis Bennema

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Moral Transformation Through Mimesis In The Johannine Tradition

Cornelis Bennema1

([email protected])

Summary

Johannine ethics is a problematic area for scholarship but recently there has been a breakthrough. In this new era of exploring Johannine ethics, the present study examines the concept of moral transformation through mimesis. The argument is that when people live in God’s world, their character and conduct are shaped in accordance with the moral beliefs, values, and norms of the divine reality, and that mimesis proves to be instrumental in this process of moral transformation. The study also explores how Johannine Christians in the late first century could imitate an ‘absent’ Jesus and what they were seeking to imitate.

1. Introduction

This study in Johannine ethics explores moral transformation through mimesis in John’s Gospel and Letters.2 I use the term ‘moral transformation’ to refer to ‘the shaping of a person’s character and conduct when they understand, embrace, and live out the beliefs, values, and norms of God’s world’. While the Johannine writings present various kinds of mimesis, this study focuses on the believer–Jesus mimesis, where Jesus sets the example for believers to imitate so

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that they may (gradually) become like him.3 However, it is legitimate to speak of moral transformation and mimesis, only if we can treat the Johannine writings as ethical texts. After all, John does not address moral issues such as divorce, purity laws, or sexual immorality. Strictly speaking, there is no ethics in John because there is no system of moral codes like the Sermon on the Mount or a systematic reflection on morality like Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. John seems to promote only one ethic – to love one another – and even this raises many questions. So, it is unsurprising that most scholars have ignored John when it comes to ethics. Recently, however, two volumes of essays have provided scholarship with a new impetus to explore Johannine ethics.4 Nevertheless, neither volume contains an essay on moral transformation or mimesis. Other publications on Johannine ethics also have different emphases than our study.5 While I have written about moral transformation and mimesis in John separately, this study links

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these topics more explicitly.