RT Article
T1 Trauma & TYPOI: The Fourth Gospel as Warning Not Example
JF Religions
VO 14
IS 1
A1 Pruszinski, Jolyon G. R.
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1830016369
AB There are at least four traumatic events that likely lie behind the Gospel of John: (1) Jesus’ death and inaccessibility, (2) the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, (3) the Johannine community’s excommunication from the synagogue, and (4) the loss of the Beloved Disciple. Evidence of all of these traumas can be found in the Gospel itself and, as extant, the Gospel exhibits a number of strategies for addressing these experiences of suffering. Working from Gaston Bachelard’s observations regarding literature produced in response to suffering, this paper outlines the textual evidence for each of these experiences of suffering, notes the responses to them that the Gospel displays, and seeks briefly to evaluate the responses for the TYPOI (patterns/examples/warnings) they provide. In short, the Fourth Gospel employs psychologically attractive, compensatory responses to experiences of loss. However, it deploys in parallel a toxic cocktail of anti-Jewish polemic, condemnation of “the world”, and self-protective, sectarian insularity. Regarding whether the text’s trauma response can be viewed as exemplary for ethically-minded Christians, Desmond Tutu’s 2009 statement, “there are certain parts [of the Bible] which you have to say no to”, is directly applicable, while the warning the text’s example suggests is significant.
K1 African-American hermeneutics
K1 Articles of Religion
K1 Anglican Church
K1 Gaston Bachelard
K1 Biblical Interpretation
K1 Ethics
K1 Anti-judaism
K1 Suffering
K1 Trauma
K1 Gospel of John
DO 10.3390/rel14010027