Abstract
The discipline, Christian Spirituality, evokes a new interest in Early Christian spirituality. What conceived spiritualities were fostered when the early Christians read the documents that were written to them and how did it influence them? According to Wolfgang Iser, a ‘reader often feels involved in events which, at the time of reading, seems real to him’. This article looks into how John describes and explains the divinity of Jesus. It also attempts to determine conceived spiritualities (lived experiences) fostered when the early Christians read John. The article starts with a brief orientation of what it means when a reader becomes entangled in the reading of a text. Then some mechanisms, as proposed by Waaijman and Iser, that can foster spiritualities are employed to examine the text, including the interaction between the text and the reader; the creation of images; the dialectic between retention and pretension and the filling of gaps.
Highlights
The New Testament presents us with ample evidence of how the early Christian writers honestly endeavoured to formulate their faith in Jesus and how they experienced him, what they wanted to say about his identity, his person and his work
When Jesus’ followers adhere to the gist of their relationship with Jesus, they will experience something of his divinity because of this immanence and his association and comparison with the Father (Van der Merwe 2017:5), for example:
Any reader of the Gospel of John will admit that John is saturated with doctrine regarding the divinity of Jesus and that the Johannine Greek text is saturated with brilliant and intelligent vocabulary selections, discourses and narrative by the author
Summary
The New Testament presents us with ample evidence of how the early Christian writers honestly endeavoured to formulate their faith in Jesus and how they experienced him, what they wanted to say about his identity, his person and his work. When Jesus’ followers (characters in the text or readers) adhere to the gist of their relationship with Jesus, they will experience something of his divinity because of this immanence and his association and comparison with the Father (Van der Merwe 2017:5), for example:. When Jesus’ followers obey his commandments (word), they obey the will of ‘Him who sent me’, for Jesus lived according to the will τοῦ πέμψαντός με (Jn 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 8:29) (Van der Merwe 1996:453). The symbols and metaphors in John absolutely stimulate emotions and prompt feelings to create an exciting Johannine narrative For the readers this would foster more effectively spiritual experiences, for example, when Jesus referred to himself as the bread of life at the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Jn 6:1–67).
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