Remaining in His Word: From Faith to Faith by Way of the Text

This is certainly the most unusual project in which I have participated in the thirty plus years I have been engaged in studying and pondering the Fourth Gospel, including teaching it to others and writing about it. The project’s initiator and combination shepherd and sheep dog, Tom Thatcher, invited us to reflect upon one of two cluster questions: either upon where we think Johannine Studies has been during our professional lives and where it is headed; or upon our own experience of participating in this scholarly journey. A number of insightful papers, recently read or published, have charted from different perspectives the course of Johannine Studies from the mid–twentieth century to our own day, and I pre- sume that other contributors to this volume will hazard well–founded predictions that will benefit all of us, especially the newer scholars in the field who will have to deal with the emerging challenges. I have therefore decided to reflect upon the second option, “how my mind has, or has not, changed” over the past three decades