Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I JOHANNINE GHRISTOLOGY AND THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH
- 1 The christology of St John
- 2 The development of christology in the second century
- 3 Christology in the third century
- 4 The traditions at the outbreak of the Arian controversy
- PART II JOHANNINE CHRISTOLOGY AND THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY
- Appendix: The word Homoousios
- Bibliography
- Indexes
2 - The development of christology in the second century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I JOHANNINE GHRISTOLOGY AND THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH
- 1 The christology of St John
- 2 The development of christology in the second century
- 3 Christology in the third century
- 4 The traditions at the outbreak of the Arian controversy
- PART II JOHANNINE CHRISTOLOGY AND THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY
- Appendix: The word Homoousios
- Bibliography
- Indexes
Summary
For over thirty years there has been a continuing debate over the question of the church's attitude towards St John's Gospel and its use of it during the second century, a question which is of considerable importance for understanding the development of Christian doctrine during this period. The first major contribution was made by W. von Loewenich in 1932. In 1941 R. Bultmann's commentary was published, in which he proposed the view that the basis of the Gospel was a gnostic writing which had been redacted in the interests of orthodoxy. In 1943 J. N. Sanders, from an examination of the writings of the second century, reached mainly negative conclusions concerning the church's use of the Gospel in the first half of the second century. Because of its popularity in gnostic circles and the lack of clear quotations from the Gospel in surviving ecclesiastical writings written prior to A.D. 180, Sanders concluded that if the church knew of the existence of the Gospel, it treated it with suspicion; he further argued that the most likely place of the Gospel's origin was Alexandria. C. K. Barrett, in 1955, simply reaffirmed Sanders negative position: ‘To trace the influence of the Fourth Gospel upon Christian theology would be more than the task of a lifetime; to trace its influence upon the thought of the first half of the second century is easy, for it had none.’
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- Information
- Johannine Christology and the Early Church , pp. 23 - 48Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1970