The Gospel of John and the Religious Quest. Johannes Nissen

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The Gospel of John and the Religious Quest - Johannes Nissen


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in the light of the biblical texts, in particular those concerning Jesus Christ. While constituting the decisive framework of interpretation for the community, they nevertheless depend on the context in which they are heard and read. It is the context that gives the foundation a present interpretation. Hence, in any Bible study we must take into consideration the twin poles of text and context, the latter being the life we are living and the experiences we have. There is an essential interaction between the biblical text and the present experience. There is no unambiguous answer to the question: “What comes first: the text or our life?” since the text interprets our life; and our life interprets the text.13

      The Cut and Thrust of Question and Answer

      The encounter between biblical text and modern man is characterized by a double movement. We bring our questions and our own situation to the text and the text brings its questions and its statements to us. We read the text and the text “reads” us. But how can this encounter between the text and our life become an authentic dialogue? Here we must see the reciprocal interaction between question and answer. In principle there are three possibilities:

      (a) The church provides the answer—but it is not an answer to people’s questions. This is the one-way model: The church proclaims its message but without listening to the real questions posed by today’s people. We meet this form of communication when for instance we see emblems with statements like: “Christ is the answer, God’s answer.” In such cases we have to find out to whom the answer is given. What is the benefit of answering if no one is putting a question? It is in fact a problem if the church has the ultimate and final answers, while at the same time the religious and theological questions are situated in different contexts and are asked in a different language and in conditions that differ from the answer.

      (b) The Bible does not answer. The Bible in many cases is a strange text. It deals with a number of issues that do not seem relevant in our part of the world, nor does it address issues that we would like to know about, such as abortion, gene technology, and nuclear weapons. We are asking too much of the Bible here; it cannot answer such questions directly. But it does answer the first Christians directly, so we can gain a better understanding of them—and then we shall discover that they often struggled with the basic problems that we face—and even from our presuppositions.

      From a methodological point of view we have to go into reverse. We must start with the answers in the text and work backwards through them to find the questions. Using the methods of biblical research we can clarify the meaning of the text with a certain assurance, that is a historical reading, and afterwards we may ask what the text means for us today, that is an actual reading.

      To conclude, the interplay between question and answer cannot allow Christians to deliver their answers without knowing the questions, nor can it turn to the Bible alone for a simplified solving of a problem.

      Mutual Critical Correlation


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