The Gospel of John and the Formation of Jewish – Christian Relations

Description

This two-part conference series is part of a research collaboration between the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and Lund University. It will bring together a small group of international scholars to examine the role of John’s Gospel in the mutual and entangled development of Judaism and Christianity in the first seven centuries CE.

The aim of the meetings is to engage, critique, and move beyond the flat and linear—yet still eminently influential—scholarly narratives that have presented John mainly as a tool in the polemical toolbox of early Christian anti-Judaism. While not dismissing or overlooking that role, the intellectual aim of the symposium is to explore the various creative and generative roles that John played within the broader development of “Jewish – Christian” relations, from the time of John itself to the composition of the Babylonian Talmud in the 5th–7th centuries. The goal is to have cross-disciplinary conversations that consider from multiple analytical angles how John impacted—and even facilitated—the formation of “Judaism” and “Christianity.” For example, symposiasts will explore questions such as:

•How does John’s own engagement with Jewishness compare to 2nd and 3rd century engagements?
•How was John used to invent a distinctly “Christian” identity in relation to “Judaism”?
•How is John a “site” of entanglement between “Jewish” and “Christian” identities?
•How did John or Johannine ideas impact the development of rabbinic and non-rabbinic forms of Judaism in Late Antiquity?

Period	2024 Sept 16 → 2024 Sept 18
Event type	Conference
Location	Lund, SwedenShow on map