Abstract / DOI
Dialogue with the Greek: Following the Lead of the Gospel of John. The Gospel according to John is not only a privileged subject of the Hellenisation debate, which is about the relationship between revelation and reason. It is also written in a philosophical-theological horizon, influenced by Platonism and Stoa as well as Hellenistic-Jewish exegesis. A key moment is Jesus' conversation with the Greeks in John 12:20-36: Jesus reveals himself by withdrawing and pointing to his post-Easter presence mediated by his death. In this conversation it becomes clear how the evangelist himself sees the task, the problem and the opportunity of Hellenisation through Jesus' eyes: Jesus' roots are in Judaism; the coordinate system of his theology is given by biblical monotheism. It is precisely in this that the universal radiance of God's love is founded, which Jesus proclaims, embodies and realises. This presupposes mission as dialogue and the discovery of God's truth in conversation with people who are called to realise their sonship with God in faith. The hermeneutical matrix is provided by the Logos Prologue, which has stimulated philosophical theology up to the present like hardly any other biblical text.