John F. O'Grady

The Role of the Beloved Disciple

tinue with an ever-increasing awareness of the historical community which formed the environment out of which the Fourth Gospel arose. One of the intriguing elements in this analysis of the Fourth Gospel and its environment is the meaning and role of the Beloved Disciple. This article will present some of the various theories that are currently being discussed with regard to this enigmatic figure with the hope that it will stimulate further discussion and

The Good Shepherd and the Vine and the Branches

an explanation (Brown: 194). Beyond this similarity in structure, however, the author seems to have created a similarity in theological theme. Both parables are concerned with an individual relationship to Jesus and both parables contain some hint of a collectivity. The purpose of this article is to examine both parables to try to disclose some of these subtle theological points of interest. At a time when there is a continual inquiry into the relationship between individual and collectivity in the Church, the Gospel of John continues to offer some light to a complicated issue.

Individualism and Johannine Ecclesiology

Recent years have witnessed an increased interest in a theological and exegetical study of the Church. The meaning of the Church, the intention of Jesus to establish a Church, the various approaches to ministry, have all come into question. Among the exegetical studies, the gospel of John seems to have generated more interest and more debate than any other of the gospels. Some scholars find no signs of the Church in the fourth gospel. For Bultmann, the evangelist was a converted gnostic and so no one should expect to find any trace of tradition, Church order or the sacraments in his work’. Edward Schweizer seems to follow a similar position in which he claims that what is overriding in the fourth gospel, is the individual, standing alone in his relationship to Jesus?. Kasemann goes furthest in his position that the fourth gospel is the result of what might be called an heretical group and is opposed in principle to the very concept of the ecclesial life of the day3. On the opposing side, Schnackenburg claims that (( the idea of the Church is much more deeply rooted in Johannine thought and indeed is indispensable to this independent, magnificently devised theology with its concentration on the essential n4. Barretts, CullmannG, Brown’, D’Aragons and other present similar positions. Within such an array of studies and scholarship no one should be so bold as to offer the final study of the question. Too

Book Review: Jesus: An Experiment in Christology:

religion. Not just for the historian of religion, but even more importantly for t h e Chr is t ian theologian, ‘ ‘ e v e r y manifestation of the sacred is important.” (p.xiii) Since the sacred is not a phase in the history of consciousness, bu t an element in the structure of that consciousness, Eliade surveys the history of homo religiosus’ encounter with the sacred in which universal history the scholar is obliged to situate his research. In this volume Eliade records and interprets the ‘documents’, written and unwritten, of humankind’s experience of the sacred from the neolithic period to the religions of the middle of the 1st millenium B.C. Two chapters treat Israel: “When Israel Was a Child,” and “The Religion of Israel in the Period of Kings and Prophets.” These two are placed in the context, not just of the ancient Mid-east, but of the archaic religions of Eurasia. Thus Eliade’s treatment is significant for the biblical theologian. Even though certain Hebrew religious elites had by the fifth century B.C. become more interested in ‘sacred history’ than in cosmogony, Eliade sees “no reasons for concluding that the ancestors of the Israelites were indifferent to the questions in which all arc ha i c societies we re interested , notably the cosmogony, the creation of man, the origin of death, and certain other grandiose episodes.” (p. 163). Therefore, neither with Abraham nor with Moses, b u t , following the ‘premodern’ tradition, Eliade begins his treatment of Israel with the first eleven chapters of Genesis. His bibliographies refer to the standard works, Noth, Bright, de Vaux, Pedersen, Kaufmann, Fohrer, etc. From his perspective, Eliade is not a t pains to declare Israel’s distinctiveness. It is obvious both that Israelite religion resulted from interaction with Canaanite cosmic religiosity and that the prophets’ d e s a c r a l i z a t i o n of n a t u r e a n d devalorization of cult resulted in a valorization of history as the epiphany of God. The two volumes to come should prove of equal worth for the theologian. In the final volume, Eliade promises to deal with the western world’s ultimate development of desacralization, its one creative religious idea, which he calls the camouflage of the ‘sacred’ by its identification with the profane. An important value of Eliade’s work is its hidden agenda: revitalizing the remains in the modern world of the vast religious heritage of humankind. The present moment is another of humankind’s creative crises in depth for which the prophets’ conflict with the cosmic religiosity of Israelite-Canaanite syncretism is an important resource, not as an isolated study, rather as part of a greater universal history. DANIEL P. SHERIDAN Duquesne University Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Origins of the Gospels: Mark

T o t h e c o n t e m p o r a r y m i n d documents which have their origin some two thousand years ago do not generate much en thus iasm even if those documents are the basis for fait‘h. People listen to the readings from the New Testament; hear homilies presented, but still, for many, the writings about Jesus of Nazareth remain so much a part of the vast unknown for many Christians. They surely have their value and their effect but it is not so evident how this is

Book Reviews: Tom Horner, Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times: Philadelphia, Fortress, 1977. Pp. 163.

Tom Horner, Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times : Philadelphia, Fortress, 1977. Pp. 163.

5.95

5.95 The reality of homosexuality is as old as the human race. The ability to speak freely about homosexuality has become possible only recently. Within the Christian Church there is no doubt that opinions differ. For this reason it is most important to examine the origins of Christianity within the matrix of Judaism and the Middle East if we are to appreciate precisely what is the position of the Church on homosexuality and ask the question if this position should be modified. The need for careful investigation of the subject is demanded at the present time in the United States particularly with the crusade against so-called &dquo;gay rights&dquo; initiated by Anita Bryant. Frequently Ms. Bryant and her supporters turn to the Bible for justification. The question remains: Can the Bible offer such support? Horner’s book is a good presentation of some of the issues. He begins by situating the Old Testament in an historical perspective. Homosexuality did exist in the Mid-East and did have an influence on Israel. Through a careful analysis of the story of David and Jonathan the author shows that there is at least ambiguity with regard to a homosexual relationship between heroes. A noble love bound David and Jonathan with the strong possibility that this relationship was homosexual. His treatment of the story of Ruth and Naomi is sober. He does not claim to discover any sure foundation for a homosexual relationshin between these two great heroines but at least will not dismiss the possibility. Unlike some other contemporary authors he does not whitewash the stories of Sodom and Gibeah but sees in these stories the sin of abusing someone else rather than homosexuality in general. With regard to the references in Leviticus, it seems clear that this involved more than just homosexuality but included cultic activity. Horner’s treatment on Paul is not as good as his analysis of the Old Testament. He seems to rely too much on the historical and personal context of Paul’s denunciation of homosexuality. What the writer does offer, however, is an awareness that it is

Johannine Ecclesiology: A Critical Evaluation

more importantly, the meaning of its presence or absence. Some will maintain that there is no explicit ecclesiology (Bultmann, Kasemann, Schweizer), while others will present the opinion that the gospel is more concerned with ecclesiology than the synoptics (Schnackenburg, Feuillet, Cullmann). This article will present the reasons and positions of several contemporary exegetes with regard to Johannine ecclesiology followed by a general critique of the contemporary understanding of the question.

Book Reviews: Leopold Sabourin, The Divine Miracles, Discussed and Defended, Catholic Book Agency (via dei Lucchesi, 20), Rome 1977, 280 pp., paper

investigation to Saint Augustine, Nicolaus of Lyra, and Lefbvre d’Etaples. He has well summarized from the beginning their respective viewpoints. &dquo;Augustine’s method of interpreting the Psalms was usually to employ allegory in order to fathom the meanings of the Psalms and of David. Lyra’s hermeneutic tool, zion the other hand, was the careful study of the literal/historical sense of the Psalms, from which he derived a ’double literal