by C. Edward Gyllenhaal
The Gospel of John has long been the subject of controversy concerning its authorship, provenance, and theological background. John differs from the other three gospels in subject matter, arrangement of events and theological emphasis, and it remains unclear whether the author of John used the other gospels as sources. John's thought, like that of the rest of the New Testament, can be called eschatological, looking always toward the "last day," on which salvation and judgment will finally be realized. But as one writer has observed, "whereas elsewhere in the NT the predominant eschatological contrast is that between the present age and the age to come—a temporal contrast—in John it is between two orders of existence, the temporal and the eternal" (Sanders 1962, 938). Accordingly, John's world tends to deal in contrasts; life versus death, spirit versus flesh, light versus darkness. This so-called "dualism" has been the concern of much of the scholarly literature of this century.
by Lars Berquist
Now, Tumjumen, Tumyumen, as we say in China, friends and comrades, we should, perhaps, go over to the topic of the day, which is Emanuel Swedenborg and his Journal of Dreams. Why the Journal of Dreams? I was saying previously today that in physics there is a specialty, a branch, which investigates the quality, the strength of material. And the interesting thing is, perhaps, not the strength as such, but when the material investigated does not stand the test— when it breaks—in the break things are to be seen which otherwise are hidden.
by Gregory L. Baker
Chapter IIIThe Global View
