Johannæisk filosofi?

Abstract

The article presents and discusses Troels Engberg-Pedersen’s new book on the Fourth Gospel. Engberg-Pedersen argues that the gospel is a philosophical narrative in the way that it in its narrative about Jesus poses and answers philosophical questions about theology, epistomology, cosmology and ethics. One major argument in the book is that John adheres to a Stoic understanding of pneuma. The Stoic pneuma has both an ontological and a cognitive side. In the Fourth Gospel it is exclusively given to Jesus in his baptism and is present in his words. In his resurrection he is transformed into pure pneuma and returns to his disciples in order to convey the pneuma to them. This is what gives them eternal life. The article raises exegetical questions to this interpretation. It argues that the traditions behind the Johannine pneuma are more complex and the narrative is more complicated than Engberg-Pedersen allows for.