The gift of God in the narrative form of the fourth Gospel

It is said that when Bernard Lonergan was still a student of theology and learned that “God is five notions, four relations, three persons, two processions, and one nature,” he made his own addition: “and zero comprehension!” In pre-eighteenth century Europe, the task of interpreting Scripture was considered a theological enterprise, and the certainties of faith were developed in the ecclesial community through the process of this exegetical and theological reflection. The Gospel of John served as the basis of the great Christological and Trinitarian controversies since it poses what is perhaps the most developed Christology in the New Testament. “In a real sense the history of Christological controversy is the history of the Church’s attempt to come to terms with John’s Christology – first to accept it and then to understand it and to re-express it. [Excerpt]
peer-reviewed