A respected New Testament scholar examines the entire New Testament, arguing that women were not only valued as disciples but also given leadership roles, which has implications for the contemporary church.
In the world of Scripture study, spirituality was often dismissed as subjective and pietistic, outside the realm of critical enquiry. Spirituality was seen as personal, private and external to critical analysis, beyond textual analysis, social-scientific understandings of the world behind the text, historical settings, and the ideologies that emerge from the text.In more recent years, spirituality has asserted its own status within the world of scholarly study as a distinct discipline. While it may cross disciplines, spirituality possesses its own, distinctive identity, convincing us that the spiritualities of the Bible are also worthy of study and analysis.This study explores the spirituality of one group of New Testament writings - those associated with the name of 'John': the Fourth Gospel, the three Johannine Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. Largely focused on the Gospel, the book explores various Johannine themes that together form a distinct and unique spirituality: Jesus as the Word, the place of worship, the role of the Spirit, images of discipleship, the five senses, the place of love, the reality of absence. The book examines these and other themes through the symbols that dominate the Johannine text, articulating its spirituality in vivid, concrete language.