Back cover: Was the footwashing in John 13:1-20 simply an act of service or humility? Bincy Mathew provides a critical and thorough exegetical analysis of the footwashing and shows that it is the symbolic prefiguration of Jesus' death on the cross enacted during the last supper to manifest his perfect love for his own.

The third quest for the historical Jesus has reached an impasse. But a fourth quest is underway--one that draws from a heretofore largely neglected source: John's Gospel. In this book, renowned New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg advances the idea that John is a viable and valuable source for studying the historical Jesus. The data from John should be integrated with that of the Synoptics, which will yield additional insights into Jesus's emphases and ministry. Blomberg begins by reviewing the first three quests, reassessing both their contributions and their shortcomings. He then discusses the emerging consensus regarding demonstrably historical portions of John, which are more numerous than usually assumed. Peeling back the layers, we discover in Jesus's ministry an emphasis on purity and purification. The Synoptics corroborate this discovery, specifically in Jesus's meals with sinners. Blomberg then explores the practical and contemporary applications of Jesus the purifier, including the "contagious holiness" that Jesus's followers can spread to others.

"In this volume, Christopher Seglenieks offers a study of the complex meaning in John's Gospel of genuine belief, arguing it includes cognitive, relational, ethical, ongoing, and public aspects. He compares it with Graeco-Roman religious practices and highlights the distinctiveness of Johannine belief whose features are motivated by John's picture of Jesus." --

Wil Rogan argues that, contrary to twentieth-century interpretation, the Fourth Gospel did not replace purity with faith in Jesus. Instead, as with other early Jewish writings, its discourse about purity functions as a way to make sense of life before God in the world. He suggests that John's Gospel employs biblical and early Jewish traditions of purity associated with divine revelation and Israel's restoration to narrate how God's people are prepared for the coming of Jesus and enabled by him to have life with God characterized by love. After evaluating different theories of purity for the interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, Rogan explores John the Baptist as an agent of ritual purification, Jesus as the agent of moral purification, and the disciples of Jesus as ones who are (or are not) made morally pure by Jesus. While purity is not one of the Fourth Gospel's primary focuses, Rogan stresses that the concept figures into some of its most significant claims about Christology, the doctrine of salvation, and ethics. Through purity, the Fourth Gospel guards continuity with the past while placing surprising conditions on participation in Israel's future.

This study aims to read Jesus's foot washing narrative missionally (John 13:1-38). A missional reading is identical to a missional hermeneutics based on the literary-theological interpretation of the text. John uses sending language and formulae, and the frame of "as . . ., so . . ." throughout the whole Gospel, which clarifies Jesus's and his disciples' mission as integrated witness. In this literary context, the foot washing narrative signifies the integrated witness of Jesus and the disciples. The narrative consists of two parts: one, Jesus's symbolic action for his death, and the other, for its interpretation for the disciple community. Jesus's death, as his unique mission, results in purifying both his disciples and the world so that they might dwell in the holy union with the triune God. The disciples are sent into the world. Just as Jesus did, so must they proclaim Jesus and his teachings. Also, they should bear witness to him by living Jesus's life-pattern of self-giving, sacrificial love, and humble service. Their verbal proclamation as evangelism and life-witness cannot be separated to testify to Jesus and their identity. Finally, today's Christians, specifically Evangelicals, are invited to participate in the Johannine mission as the integrated witness of evangelism and life-witness.

This book offers an in-depth exploration of various New Testament passages with the purpose of identifying lessons, values, and behaviors that can contribute to an understanding of organizational spirituality from a Christian worldview. Covering contemporary concepts such as women in leadership, cross-cultural leadership, transparency, and authenticity, each chapter examines an organizational leadership topic through the lens of specific New Testament principles. This volume with a fresh perspective provides theoretical and practical applications for scholars and practitioners in the field of organizational leadership.

The essays in the present volume celebrate the work of Margaret M. Mitchell (University of Chicago) by engaging, extending, and challenging her ground-breaking research in three areas: (1) the letters of Paul the Apostle, both authentic and pseudepigraphic; (2) the emergence and rapid development of early Christian literary culture over the first few centuries of the cult’s existence; and (3) Late Antique interpretive practices and perspectives, particularly among patristic readers of the scriptures.

Dehumanization has led to serious misinterpretation of the Gospels. On the one hand, Christians have often made Jesus so much more than human that it seemed inappropriate to ask about the influence other human beings had on him, male or female. On the other hand, women have been treated as less than fully human, their names omitted from stories and their voices and influence on Jesus neglected. When we ask the question this book does, what Jesus learned from women, puzzling questions that have frustrated readers of the Gospels throughout history suddenly find solutions. Weaving cutting edge biblical scholarship together with an element of historical fiction and a knack for writing for a general audience, James McGrath makes the stories of women in the New Testament come alive, and sheds fresh light on the figure of Jesus as well. This book is a must read for scholars, students, and anyone else interested in Jesus and/or in the role of ancient women in the context of their times.

The beginning of the Roman Catholic/Orthodox Theological dialogue during the 20th century raised to some high hopes for an imminent canonical unity between the two Denominations, and this, though premature, is not of course to be blamed; it is impossible for any contemporary Christian theologian not to suffer from the division within this very womb of the ontological unification of all things, which is the Church of Christ—precisely because this division gives to many the impression of a fragmentation of the Church’s very being and subsequently weakens her witness. Contents: 1. Manifesting Persons: A Church in Tension, ANDREW T.J. KAETHLER; 2. Ab astris ad castra: An Ignatian-MacIntyrean Proposal for Overcoming Historical and Political-Theological Difficulties in Ecumenical Dialogue, JARED SCHUMACHER; 3. Simon Peter in the Gospel according to John:His Historical Significance according to the Johannine Community’s Narrative, CHRISTOS KARAKOLIS; 4. The Scythian Monks’ Latin-cum-Eastern Approach to Tradition: A Paradigm for Reunifying Doctrines and Overcoming Schism, ANNA ZHYRKOVA; 5. Beauty is the Church’s Unity:Supernatural Finality, Aesthetics, and Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue, NORM KLASSEN; 6. Ecumenism and Trust: A Pope on Mount Athos, ANDREAS ANDREOPOULOS; 7. God’s Silence and Its Icons: A Catholic’s Experiences at Mount Athos and Mount Jamna, MARCIN PODBIELSKI; 8. Councils and Canons: A Lutheran Perspective on the Great Schism and the So-Called Eighth Ecumenical Council, JOHANNES BÖRJESSON; 9. Christological Or Analogical Primacy. Ecclesial Unity And Universal Primacy In The Orthodox Church, NIKOLAOS LOUDOVIKOS; 10. Ecumenism, Geopolitics, and Crisis, JOHN MILBANK; 11. Concluding Reflections on Mapping the Una Sancta. An Orthodox-Catholic Ecclesiology Today, MARCELLO LA MATINA;

In the spirit of Ludolph of Saxony (c. 1295–1378) and Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), The Fourfold Gospel invites the reader into the mystery of God’s redemption in Jesus Christ. All the parallel passages in the Gospels are glossed together, along with the unique material, using a medieval interpretive approach called the Quadriga or the acronym PaRDeS in Hebrew. Meditating on the literal, canonical, moral, and theological senses of Scripture offers a scaffolding for the spiritual formation of the reader. This volume focuses on the summoning and purgative stage of discipleship—the Sermon on the Mount—as well as participating in Christ’s healing of creation.