Ratio Religionis: "Retelling the Story of Jesus: The Gospel of John and the Emergence of Philosophical Religion and Religious Philosophy in the Early Imperial Period

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The proposed research project is part of the larger enterprise, "Ratio Religionis: Religious Philosophy and Philosophical Religion in the Early Empire", which analyzes the development towards philosophical religion and religious philosophy in the Platonist strand of different religious traditions (Jewish, Christian, "Pagan"). Following a phase of scepticism, Platonic philosophy found its source of truth not only in a fresh rereading of the writings of Plato, but also in a new interpretation of religious stories, rituals and artefacts. Interpreted philosophically through an approach that regarded traditional religious materials as images of the divine, this religious material became fruitful for addressing contemporary questions. Alongside Jewish (e.g. Philo) and "Pagan" (e.g. Plutarch) works, early Christian writings also participated in this development. The proposed project intends to situate the Gospel of John in this development. Its particular focus is Johannine aestheticism, that is, the theological and hermeneutical function of sense perceptions within the so-called "spiritual gospel" (Clement of Alexandria). Sense-perceptions figure prominently in the Fourth Gospel, most often in explicitly theological contexts. The central assumption of the proposed study is that it is in the story of Jesus as told in the Gospel of John the Word of God who became flesh (John 1:14)-viewed in the right way-that the otherwise unknowable God (John 1:18) becomes perceivable through the senses.