Glaube und Theologie
im Kontext
Contextualizing Faith
and Theology
Indien / India
FAITH AND THEOLOGY IN THE JOHANNINE
COMMUNITY AND IN THE REFORMATION
A Paradigm in the Indian Context
Johnson Thomaskutty
ABSTRACT / ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
The relationship between the exercise of faith within a believing community and the conceptualization of theology within the academic set-up is one of the most intriguing concerns discussed in modern theology. The current essay thus explores 1. the integral connection between faith and theology within the Johannine community context, 2. the impact the Johannine way to handle faith and theology may have had on the Reformation, and 3. the role the Johannine and Reformation paradigms play in the contemporary Indian context. The discussion as a whole is an attempt to demonstrate how the Johannine community, the Reformation Movement, and the Protestant Christianity in India relate theological reflection with âlivingâ devotion.
Die Beziehung zwischen der Glaubenspraxis einer Gemeinde und den theologischen Gedankengebilden der akademischen theologischen Wissenschaft ist eines der meistdiskutierten Probleme moderner Theologie. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht dieser Beitrag 1. die wesenhafte Verbindung von Glaube und Theologie im Kontext der johanneischen Gemeinde, 2. den möglichen Einfluss dieser engen Verbindung von Glaube und Theologie in der johanneischen Theologie auf die reformatorische Theologie, und 3. die Rolle, den die johanneischen und reformatorischen Paradigmen noch heute fĂŒr die christliche Theologie in Indien spielen.
INTRODUCTION
The following paper deals with the relationship between the faith of the believing community and theology within the academic set-up. The Reformation movement with its emphasis on sola scriptura, sola fide, and solus Christus attempted to build a bridge between faith and theology. While the Reformers derived their core concepts and theological ideas mostly from the Pauline corpus, in the current investigation, I seek to explore the connection between the Johannine understanding of faith and theology and its significance in the Reformation context. The following questions are given prominence here: how did the Johannine community deal with the issues of the relationship between faith and theology in their personal and corporate living? How did the Reformers follow the ideology of the Johannine community in their interpretative endeavours in relating faith in the ecclesiastical set-up and the theology in the academic circles of their times? How did the Reformation movement influence Indian Christianity and its reinterpretation of faith and theology? How did the characteristic features of the Johannine community serve as a model to the Reformers and also to the post-Reformation Indian believers/scholars in developing their ideological and theological framework? An attempt is made to analyze the way in which Christ-centred interpretations work in the Johannine, in the Reformation, and in the Indian Christian contexts. At the integrative level, we will also explore the analeptic (to the Johannine community) and the proleptic (to the Indian Christian context) connection of the Reformation movement. The unique feature of the Reformation, as it relates to both the biblical past and the global future, gives us a significant outlook concerning the movement and its growth. As a Johannine scholar, I will, first, analyze faith and theology within the narrative framework of the Gospel of John; second, as a person influenced by Protestant theology, I will describe the connection of these two areas in the Reformation traditions; and third, as an Indian, I will study the impact and influence of the Johannine and the Reformation principles both in the historical and in the contemporary Indian scenario.
FAITH AND THEOLOGY IN THE JOHANNINE COMMUNITY CONTEXT
As a gnomic interpreter, the Johannine narrator recreates the story of Jesus with innovative techniques, immediate effects, and universal significance.1 Louis Martyn conceives the Gospel of John as a two-level drama.2 For him, the Fourth Gospel âseems far more detached from its ancient setting.â Martyn says, âThe very mention of this Gospel causes most of us to think of those marvellous discourses of Jesus, in the reading of which one feels immediately warmed by such âspiritualâ and timeless affirmations as, âI am the way, and the truth, and the life.ââ3 Raymond E. Brown explains the tension between Church and Synagogue and the polemic between Jews and the Johannine sectarians,4 arguing that the Johannine Christians, as a sectarian group expelled from the Synagogue, constructed a theology according to their existential demands and based on their faith affirmations.5 In the Johannine community context, the aspect of faith was dealt with using an entirely different emphasis and perspective. In the words of Robert Kysar, âCommunity experience was understood to be the key that unlocked the puzzles of the gospelâboth its theological themes and the language it uses to tell its story of Jesus.â6 The communitarian tendencies of the Fourth Gospel enable the reader to relate the characters and the events from an âeverywhere and everâ point of view rather than from a âthere and thenâ perspective.7 In the words of Clement of Alexandria, John positions his Gospel over against the âexternal factsâ of the Synoptic Gospels, as the Fourth Gospel is a narrative filled with âinternal factsâ which qualify this Gospel to be called âa spiritual Gospel.â8 This general framework persuades a reader to perceive the contemporaneous outlook of the Gospel. The questions to be answered in this paper are: âHow did the situation of the Johannine community inform the reformulation of their faith along soteriological and eschatological lines?â, âHow can the communityâs theological engagements be a paradigm in the contemporary Indian context?â, and âWhat insights can an overview of the experiences of the Johannine community in relation to the Indian Christian situation offer into the connection between faith and theology in the contemporary world?â
In the Fourth Gospel, while the noun pistis does not occur, the verb pisteuĆ occurs nearly one hundred times.9 Richard Thomas France states, âAt any rate, the verb expresses a vital component in Johnâs understanding of salvation. It summarizes what God requires of his people (6:28-29).â10 Johnâs usage of the verb can be briefly outlined as follows: first, the intellectual content of the verb is expressed twelve times by pisteuĆ with hoti (literally, âbelieve thatâ). All these uses (except 9:18) refer to a Christological conviction, i.e. the belief that Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, has come from God (6:69; 8:24; 11:27, 42; 13:19; 17:8, 21; 14:10-11; 16:27, 30; 20:31);11 second, in no less than thirty-six cases it is expressed with pisteuĆ eis (literally, âbelieve intoâ), and once pisteuĆ en (âbelieve inâ; see 2:11; 3:15. 16. 18a, 36; 4:39; 6:29. 35. 40; 7:31. 48; 8:30; 9:36; 10:42; 11:45. 48; 12:11. 42; 14:1a; 17:20).12 All these usages except two refer to a belief âinto Jesus,â or âinto the name of Jesusâ (1:12; 2:23; 3:18);13 third, in thirty cases pisteuĆ is used absolutely, with no explicit indication of the object of belief. Often these uses follow closely after references to believing âinto Jesusâ (see 3:18; 4:39, 41; 6:40. 47; 9:35-38).14 In the words of Udo Schnelle, âIn the majority of cases, pisteuĆ is combined with eis (in or on), which indicates a fundamental characteristic of the Johannine understanding of faith.â15 It demonstrates a complete commitment and personal union between the believer and Christ. Believing in Jesus means to receive him (1:12; 5:43; 13:20), to receive his testimony (3:11), and to receive his words (12:48; 17:8).16 In that sense, faith is used as a shorthand expression for a Christian commitment that is mostly or even fully directed towards Jesus.17 Here, we see Johnâs distinctive linguistic usage of faith that is remarkably single-minded. While a few of Johnâs uses of pisteuĆ appear with the dative and refer to God or Scripture (or Moses) or a word spoken, in the vast majority of cases the object of faith is the person of Jesus himself.18 This understanding of the verb in John informs the reader about the following things: first, believing is significantly connected to the person and work of Jesus; second, it is a soteriologically loaded term that functions both at the intradiegetic (within the story of John) and metadiegetic (in relation to the readers) levels;19 and third, it is an existential demand or requirement to establish the identity of the community.
The first time the word âfaithâ in verbal form (pisteusĆsin) appears in 1:7. John the Baptist came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. In 1:12, it is said that believing (pisteuousin) in Jesusâ name will give people âpower to become children of God.â20 These initial and other references to âbelievingâ are well-aligned with the statement of purpose of the Gospel leading up to the climax of the story. In 20:31, the narrator concludes: âBut these are written so that you may come to believe (pisteuÄte) that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing (pisteuontes) you may have life in his name.â Commenting on John 20:31, Larry W. Hurtado states, âThe acclamation of Jesus as âthe Christâ forms a central part of the authorâs own summary of Christian faith.â21 In 20:30, the narrator gives the impression that the conten...