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
Reads the Gospel of John from an ecological perspective and offers a commentary on the entire text with insights into how the text can help people respond to the ecological crisis.
Margaret Daly-Denton’s early career as a liturgical musician and an internationally published church composer led her to become a biblical scholar. She has recently retired from teaching New Testament at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
The prose is rich and sensitive to the many instances in the Gospel
referring to the natural world ... a very good addition to a
Johannine library, offering insights and references not usually
considered.
*Australian Biblical Review*
The evocative Johannine text, Supposing Him to be the Gardener,
infuses Margaret Daly-Denton’s Earth-conscious reading of the
Fourth Gospel. She reads with three levels of attentiveness. The fi
rst is to those Earth elements such as bread, water and light that
are encoded in the text but are so often read for their symbolic
import only and not in their materiality. The second is to the
impact of fi rst century CE socio-economic and political realities
on the land. The focus of the third level is the contemporary
consciousness of Earth that accompanies this new reading of the
Johannine text. Readers of this beautifully written commentary will
be drawn into a rich tapestry of these three layers of
meaning-making and will encounter Daly-Denton’s expert knowledge of
the Johannine text and its intertexts in literature and
context.
*ELAINE M. WAINWRIGHT, University of Auckland, New Zealand*
It should not be surprising that a Gospel about the one through
whom “all things came into being” has profound implications for
ecological responsibility, but Daly-Denton is the fi rst major
scholar to show this convincingly. Her commentary combines
excellent scholarship, deep insight, and prophetic relevance. It is
a superb example of what John’s Gospel itself encourages: being
“led into all the truth” through a wise blend of rereading
scriptures and passionate commitment to Jesus who came for the sake
of “life in all its fullness".
*DAVID F. FORD, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, UK*
‘Daly-Denton makes a persuasive case that Jesus is in fact Earth’s
gardener. This beautifully written work draws on contemporary
ecological scholarship, as well as archaeology of water supplies
and deep resonances with the Hebrew scriptures. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus diagnoses Earth’s ills and invites his followers to be part
of God’s healing work, a radical vision for eternal life on Earth,
here and now.
*BARBARA ROSSING, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, USA*
To identify with Mary, who believes Jesus to be the gardener, is
but a provocative starting point for Margaret Daly-Denton’s intense
Earth-conscious reading of John’s Gospel. The reader needs to join
Daly-Denton in the garden of Earth, from the beginning when the
Word creates Earth and all Earth beings, including the Garden of
Eden, to the gardens associated with the crucifi xion and
resurrection of Jesus. A garden context stimulates an Earth
consciousness that Daly-Denton hopes will “transform” us as
readers, who share the breath of life with all creatures, to care
for Earth and its creatures as God intended for the fi rst humans
in Eden. Daly-Denton has experienced, through her gardening and
writing of this volume, that the Fourth Gospel is “good news” for
Earth and all Earth beings. I recommend you go into a challenging
garden and read this volume along with the Book of Nature!
*NORMAN C. HABEL, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia*
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