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The Word of Life: A Theology of John's Gospel. By Craig R. Koester. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, 2008. xiv + 245 pp. $21.00 (paper).
This volume attempts to answer three questions relating to the Gospel of John: (1) Who is the God about whom Jesus speaks? (2) Who does the Gospel of John say that Jesus is? and (3) How does that Gospel understand Ufe, death, sin, and faith? To read the Gospel of John this way is to read it theologically. Craig R. Koester has drawn on both current studies and a broad range of historical insights, but has put his own mark upon the material in significant and helpful ways for the modern reader.
Koester takes several dimensions of the message of the Gospel of John and integrates them into a coherent whole. He begins by noting that the Gospel presupposes, first, only one true God, who gives life to those who believe, and who raises the dead; and second, that Jesus is a human being, who dies by crucifixion. For the original recipients of the Gospel these were key counterpoints...