John: An Earth Bible Commentary – Supposing Him to Be the Gardener

Description
This volume in the Earth Bible Commentary Series suggests how John’s Gospel might motivate and resource a Christian response to the ecological crisis. Margaret Daly-Denton shows how aptly Mary Magdalene recognized the risen Jesus as ‘the gardener’ (Jn 20.15), completing his day’s work in the ‘garden’ of the Earth. The Johannine story of Jesus offers his present day followers a paradigm with considerable potential to inspire Earth care, sustainable living and commitment to eco-justice. The Fourth Evangelist believes that Jesus fulfils the Jewish hope for a restoration envisaged as a return of humankind to Eden. Keeping this theme continually in mind, Daly-Denton reads the gospel with sensitivity to the role of the more-than-human world in the narrative and with particular attention to the scriptural underlay that repeatedly brings this world into the foreground. The commentary begins with an exploration of the memories and associations that the garden setting would have evoked for the intended audience. It then follows the gospel’s spiral path that eventually leads to the garden of Mary’s encounter. Each chapter concludes by asking how believers might do God’s work (Jn 6.28) in today’s ecologically damaged world and by offering practical suggestions indicative of the reflection that readers of the commentary will be able to do in their own setting.

Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: An Earth-Conscious Reading
1. Supposing Him to Be the Gardener
2. In the Beginning
3. From Lamplight to Dawn
4. From Wilderness to Fertile Land
5. At the Centre of the Earth
6. Living Water
7. My Father Has Never Ceased Working
8. The Bread of Life
9. At the Festival of Tabernacles
10. The Good Shepherd
11. From Bethany to Jerusalem
12. The Hour Has Come (Jn 12.23)
13. Eat, Friends, and Drink (Song 5.1)
14. I Still Have Much to Say to You (Jn 16.12)
15. Love Is as Strong as Death (Song 8.6)
16. I Have Come to My Garden (Song 5.1)
Bibliography
Index