John For Today, like the author’s earlier best-selling book Paul for Today, combines fresh accessible scholarship with an exploration of the gospel’s significance for the contemporary Church and wider world. The Gospel’s historical origins, distinctive features and literary patterns are all helpfully illuminated, including John’s similarities with and differences from the other Gospels and the much-debated question of the Gospel’s real author. Recent criticisms of the Gospel, such as its exclusiveness, alleged anti-semitism and predominantly male characters and language are also examined, together with its relevance for a turbulent world in which religion has become a deeply ambivalent phenomenon. The book seeks to be faithful to the gospel of John in the central position it accords to Jesus, whilst also relating this controversial gospel to the Christian orthodoxy of later centuries.It is a book written for the non-specialist reader, and ‘for such a time as this’.
The Revd Dr Neil Richardson is a ‘retired’ UK Methodist minister who has devoted much of his ministry to exploring the contemporary relevance of the New Testament.