Hearing Jus0ce in John’s Gospel by Kathleen Rushton SCM (London) 2020. Pbk. 242 pages. £25.
The Booker Prize winning author Margaret Atwood said some time ago that ‘context is everything’. The context of this book is suggested in the very title. We have heard the cry of the Earth these last few months.
The Covid-19 virus is far from the cry of birds singing sweetly in the trees. The cry sounds like that of a vengeful banshee, foretelling death to the four winds which have wafted the virus around the globe in just a few weeks.
And we have heard the cry of the poor, or marginalised, recently in Minneapolis USA at the murder of yet another black man at the hands, or the knee, of a white policeman. That cry has found echo here in the UK and has awakened an avid interest in black lives’ history, current situation and future.
Author Kathleen P. Rushton, Independent Scholar and Lecturer at the Catholic Institute of Aotearoa New Zealand, and I agree that Jesus’ most beautiful words were, ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly’. Rushton will show that the life Jesus refers to is this life. Jesus uses the word a total of 53 times. His theology speaks of God who works without ceasing. The churches’ theology asks the question, who is God? Jesus’ theology asks, what does God do?
Our author will offer us a framework which enables us to hear the cries of the earth and of the poor of the earth and so to work towards ecological and social justice. She hopes also to contribute towards a spiritual ecumenism that is about prayer and mission. And she also hopes to help sustain Christians in the huge task of addressing the degradation of the earth and the displacement of the marginalised – word she uses instead of ‘poor’.
Our author finds here inspiration in two great movements of our age: hunger for a spirituality that embraces meditation and contemplation; and a concern for the environment which is inextricably linked with social justice. We think of John’s gospel as contemplative and theological, not concerned with injustice in the way of the Synoptics. The reader is in for a few surprises. As she guides us through John she will alert us to the ‘p’ codes which permeate the behaviours, attributes, attitudes and powers of the various characters.
These codes are: power, privilege, property, poverty and persecution.
The world in John is the good world to which we are missioned; the evil world which we confront; and the alternative of which we dream, the reign of the Abba. To read John in the world of Jesus and in our world we must be aware of the Gospel’s ancient context (the world behind the text); of the text itself with its stories, symbols and images; and of the text as it confronts the world, reading it to debunk its false dreams, illusions and its injustices. Throughout, our author wants to bring John’s ‘high Christology’ (from above) closer—if such were possible—to the synoptics’ ‘low Christology’.
The format employed by Rushton is the same for each chapter. She begins with reading John 1. After a short commentary to highlight features of the text, she passes to a meditation which delves deeply into the text itself, illuminating phrases, exploring multifaceted symbols and images, connecting with ancient Hebrew wisdom. This is first-rate biblical commentary which can generate a profound biblical spirituality. The last part of the chapter she calls, Prayer, Contemplation, Action. There she suggests a few questions which could motivate prayer which prompts action. Her implicit paradigm for Christian formation is that of Liberation theology, viz. see the real situation; judge it in light of Gospel values; act to change the situation.
Throughout her book our author emphasises Christ’s ministry as ‘barrier-crossing’ and as ‘completing the work of God’. Thus when he initiates a conversation with the Samaritan woman he crosses frontiers of sex, nationality and religion – all freighted with hostility. He leads her from wariness to witness.
When Rushton speaks of water she explores both its material dimensions as necessary for human life and water’s symbolic density. When she writes of bread she points to its value as nourishment, its lack as hunger and its symbolism for all of life. She goes on to speak of Christ as the Bread of life.
This is a book of theological reflection, biblical commentary, social awareness and spiritual refreshment. Well worth grappling with.
Frank Regan is a writer, theologian and former editor of Renew (Catholics for a Changing Church).