Overview

The Gospel of John has long been understood as a sectarian text, one that reinforces the social and religious isolation of a Johannine community. Savior of the World: A Theology of the Universal Gospel directly challenges this reading, arguing that John's Jesus does not belong to just one community. John's Jesus came for all and spans the universe. In Savior of the World, Carlos Raúl Sosa Siliezar carefully reconsiders the often-overlooked passages and motifs that emphasize Jesus as a figure of universal significance and as universal Savior. John's introduction of Jesus as the Word sets the stage for universal language by identifying Jesus as the rightful owner of all creation. Sosa Siliezar emphasizes that John's Jesus, in his public ministry, offers an all-inclusive love of God to anyone who will receive it. In his private ministry, Jesus bears witness to a nuanced world, tasking his disciples with preaching and expanding the love of Christ to all. Jesus' all-embracing mission is sustained by the Spirit, who models, through the disciples, the reality and promise of the world that is to come. Sosa Siliezar shows how John, though deeply indebted to Judaism, crafts a universal Gospel precisely because his Jesus is deeply rooted in the particularity of monotheism. John portrays Jesus, a Jew from Nazareth, as the world's Savior, the one sent by the one God to bring light into a universe of darkness.

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9781481309950

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Reviews

"...it is a concise critique against reading the Gospel of John from a sectarian perspective and it will remind the reader that the Johannine Gospel envisions the incarnate Logos extending his authority to all the nations in one grand global Kingdom. --C. Scott Shidemantle ""Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society"" Overall, Siliezar offers a compelling reading of the Fourth Gospel by tracing the use of John's universal language throughout the entirety of the evangelist's narrative. Against strict sectarian readings, he successfully demonstrates how a narrative-critical approach to John's Gospel can 'cast new light' on lingering historical questions. He persuasively argues that John's depiction of Jesus as the rightful owner of creation suggests that John's original readers were not an isolated community. --James A. Roh ""Reading Religion"""

Overall, Siliezar offers a compelling reading of the Fourth Gospel by tracing the use of John's universal language throughout the entirety of the evangelist's narrative. Against strict sectarian readings, he successfully demonstrates how a narrative-critical approach to John's Gospel can 'cast new light' on lingering historical questions. He persuasively argues that John's depiction of Jesus as the rightful owner of creation suggests that John's original readers were not an isolated community. --James A. Roh Reading Religion

Author Information

Carlos Raúl Sosa Siliezar is is Assistant Professor of New Testament in the School of Biblical and Theological Studies at Wheaton College.

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