The divine preservation of salvation in John’s gospel : a social scientific reading

Abstract

One characteristic of John’s community as evidenced in the Gospel of John, is its awareness of social identity categories –the insiders are God’s children while the non-believers are children of Satan who are symbolised by darkness. It is within this prism that John discusses the concept of divine preservation. The task of this study was to define and explain divine preservation of salvation and its identity implication within John’s community. Instead of the dominant theological perspective, this study takes a sociological reading that seeks to construct the social context from within which John gives instruction and then reads his theology in the context of identity formation. In the past and in most theological seminaries, the dominant approach is the theological lens –seeing the subject as God protecting the church from Satan until the Parousia. While similar readings could be further pursued, a sociological reading based on social identity theory may ultimately prove more fruitful in revealing the internal dynamics within John’s community. The context of Ephesus and its religious plurality of Artemis, Emperor Worship, Cybele mystery cults and Asclepius are all explained as a basis upon which John carves out the identity of his community. From this context, divine preservation of salvation is predicated upon the following: the idea that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the reality of threat from the enemy, the presence of the λόγος, (Word) Holy Spirit and the nearness of the Parousia. The study seeks to add to the discussion regarding implications of identity categorisation and ethnicity within a context of globalisation and multiculturalism in South Africa.