Myth and Phenomena: Introducing John the Theologian

On a crisp fall day of a New York October in 2014, I remember a dark espresso, a bright morning of warm hospitality, and an excited Fr. John Behr showing me his fresh insight into the structure of John’s Prologue and talking about what he thought it might mean for theology. The few seeds John had just then found have since matured and grown into a new proposal, not just for how to read the Gospel, but for how to take up the task of theology itself. In order to understand and evaluate this proposal, a group of eminent scholars in each of the several disciplines Behr traverses in this difficult book have graciously offered their reflections and evaluations of its strengths, weaknesses, and impact for the field. In this symposium, Harold Attridge evaluates Behr’s engagement with contemporary biblical scholarship in his exegesis of the Gospel; Paul Blowers takes the book’s measure as a historical theologian; Fr. Andrew Louth assesses Behr’s arguments about the figure of John in the early history of Christianity and the Gospel in the liturgy (as well as Behr’s place among Orthodox theologians); Charles Stang draws out the deep connection between Behr’s three concluding proposals and the influence of Origen (whose On First Principles Behr has recently edited and translated), offering some tentative, if beautifully drawn, theological “worries” of his own; and Fr. Olivier-Thomas Venard analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of Behr’s use of French phenomenology in his approaches to both Scripture and theology. Because of the book’s incredible breadth—working properly across the fields of biblical studies, patristics, and contemporary phenomenology—we are grateful to these scholars for offering their experience and expertise to help the rest of us critically understand what it is Behr has achieved, where he has