austraLasia 1544
John's Gospel part 1: Scripture first or Canon?
(note: part 1 of two very different news items on John's Gospel. Part 1 is from a Scripture scholar.
Part 2, a little further along the track, will be from a communications scholar!)
ROME: 29th April 2006 -- Not sure if Salesianum finds its way into communities, but it would certainly go to all provinces. It comes out four times a year from the UPS in Rome. When, in the January-March 2006 number, the author of the first article starts out - in English - with "The success of Dan Brown's The da Vinci Code...", it is bound to get even the casual reader's attention. It got this reader's attention (it would have anyway), but given that its author is a member of the EAO region and one of its Provincials, it deserves a mention in austraLasia - it would have anyway :-)
Frank Moloney needs no introduction so let's not waste further words there. He points out that Dan Brown popularized what (particularly American) scholars had already promoted in the past about the Christian Canon of Scripture - that it was something imposed on the Gospels and other early Christian writings by reasons other than religious or theological. At the height of the Gospel of Judas mania several weeks back, (Frank doesn't say this, but it's clear enough) a Google search on 'Elaine Pagel' plus 'expert' scored 157 hits. She was the media's prime go-to person for a scholarly read on the import of the Coptic manuscript. She specializes in the Gnostics, you see, which was Frank's point in mentioning Pagel's Beyond Belief that would date some of this Gnostic stuff prior to John's Gospel. But Pagel is no real Gnostic 'scholar', either; she might be better described as a lady novelist or naughty historian (a comment from a Jesuit writing about her)! Dan Brown is no scholar, though we can't detract from his ability as a novelist, and he couldn't even remember, conveniently, where he'd read much of his information, in the recent London trial over his book, but he didn't need to look far to discover scepticism about the so-called Christian Scriptural Canon.
Frank's particular interest, as a scholar of John's Gospel, is in finding out how it really finds its place in the canon, from which he can then say things about the canon more generally. As someone who has applied the discipline of narrative criticism to this Gospel, he comes up with an interesting conclusion - that John tells the life of Jesus to bring to a close the entire biblical narrative. That doesn't sound so astounding on first reflection, but he takes lines like "for as yet they did not understand" which would be a Dan Brown delight line (if DB reads John's Gospel; I doubt it) and an opening to gnostic hopes. Frank points out, from his appreciation of the fact that this is a narrative, that Peter and the Beloved Disciple are characters IN the story, and these characters as such do not yet understand. But the characters in the story are not the readers of the story - nor its authors for that matter. Those lines, then, do not detract from the author of the Fourth Gospel's firm belief that he is telling a story which fulfills Scripture, not one that somehow has to be contrived later to 'belong' to a new canon of Christian Scripture.
All in all it's a good read and not a long one, a mere 13 pages in fact. To be recommended, especially before you pick up The Solomon Key (DB's next novel).
If you have further comment on this article, why not go to BoscoWiki austraLasia page and offer it there for others to read?
_______________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml
John's Gospel part 1: Scripture first or Canon?
(note: part 1 of two very different news items on John's Gospel. Part 1 is from a Scripture scholar.
Part 2, a little further along the track, will be from a communications scholar!)
ROME: 29th April 2006 -- Not sure if Salesianum finds its way into communities, but it would certainly go to all provinces. It comes out four times a year from the UPS in Rome. When, in the January-March 2006 number, the author of the first article starts out - in English - with "The success of Dan Brown's The da Vinci Code...", it is bound to get even the casual reader's attention. It got this reader's attention (it would have anyway), but given that its author is a member of the EAO region and one of its Provincials, it deserves a mention in austraLasia - it would have anyway :-)
Frank Moloney needs no introduction so let's not waste further words there. He points out that Dan Brown popularized what (particularly American) scholars had already promoted in the past about the Christian Canon of Scripture - that it was something imposed on the Gospels and other early Christian writings by reasons other than religious or theological. At the height of the Gospel of Judas mania several weeks back, (Frank doesn't say this, but it's clear enough) a Google search on 'Elaine Pagel' plus 'expert' scored 157 hits. She was the media's prime go-to person for a scholarly read on the import of the Coptic manuscript. She specializes in the Gnostics, you see, which was Frank's point in mentioning Pagel's Beyond Belief that would date some of this Gnostic stuff prior to John's Gospel. But Pagel is no real Gnostic 'scholar', either; she might be better described as a lady novelist or naughty historian (a comment from a Jesuit writing about her)! Dan Brown is no scholar, though we can't detract from his ability as a novelist, and he couldn't even remember, conveniently, where he'd read much of his information, in the recent London trial over his book, but he didn't need to look far to discover scepticism about the so-called Christian Scriptural Canon.
Frank's particular interest, as a scholar of John's Gospel, is in finding out how it really finds its place in the canon, from which he can then say things about the canon more generally. As someone who has applied the discipline of narrative criticism to this Gospel, he comes up with an interesting conclusion - that John tells the life of Jesus to bring to a close the entire biblical narrative. That doesn't sound so astounding on first reflection, but he takes lines like "for as yet they did not understand" which would be a Dan Brown delight line (if DB reads John's Gospel; I doubt it) and an opening to gnostic hopes. Frank points out, from his appreciation of the fact that this is a narrative, that Peter and the Beloved Disciple are characters IN the story, and these characters as such do not yet understand. But the characters in the story are not the readers of the story - nor its authors for that matter. Those lines, then, do not detract from the author of the Fourth Gospel's firm belief that he is telling a story which fulfills Scripture, not one that somehow has to be contrived later to 'belong' to a new canon of Christian Scripture.
All in all it's a good read and not a long one, a mere 13 pages in fact. To be recommended, especially before you pick up The Solomon Key (DB's next novel).
If you have further comment on this article, why not go to BoscoWiki austraLasia page and offer it there for others to read?
_______________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml
