Luke Timothy Johnson – författare

The Real Jesus—the first book to challenge the findings of the Jesus Seminar, the controversial group of two hundred scholars who claim Jesus only said 18 percent of what the Gospels attribute to him—"is at the center of the newest round in what has been called the Jesus Wars" (Peter Steinfels, New York Times). Drawing on the best biblical and historical scholarship, respected New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson demonstrates that the "real Jesus" is the one experienced in the present through faith rather than the one found in speculative historical reconstructions. A new preface by the author presents his point of view on the most recent rounds of this lively debate.

Who is the real Jesus? How can we experience the mystery, compelxity, and richness of his spirituality and teachings in our lives today? In this gently instructive and inspiring guide, Luke Timothy Johnson leads us to a deeper understanding and practice of classic Christian spirituality and faith. Translating his biblical scholarship into simple, elegant language, he offers a compelling and wise reflection on the real Jesus--not the reconstructed historical figure but the resurrected Christ, a living savior we can encounter every day.

Living Jesus elucidates the mystery of Jesus' resurrection and its central role in the Christian experience. It explores the diversity and fullness of the New Testament views of Christ, revealing how each book's perspective can deepen our understanding of Jesus. Profoundly insightful, Living Jesus offers valuable lessons on how we can accept the Gospels' powerful invitation to an authenic Christian spirituality.

A witness to the peculiar way of being that is the scholar’s 

Luke Timothy Johnson is one of the best-known and most influential New Testament scholars of recent decades. In this memoir, he draws on his rich experience to invite readers into the scholar’s life—its aims, commitments, and habits. 

In addition to sharing his own story, from childhood to retirement, Johnson reflects on the nature of scholarship more generally, showing how this vocation has changed over the past half-century and where it might be going in the future. He is as candid and unsparing about negative trends in academia as he is hopeful about the possibilities of steadfast, disciplined scholarship. In two closing chapters, he discusses the essential intellectual and moral virtues of scholarly excellence, including curiosity, imagination, courage, discipline, persistence, detachment, and contentment. 

Johnson’s robust defense of the scholarly life—portrayed throughout this book as a generative process of discovery and disclosure—will inspire both new and seasoned scholars, as well as anyone who reads and values good scholarship. But The Mind in Another Place ultimately resonates beyond the walls of the academy and speaks to matters more universally human: the love of knowledge and the lifelong pursuit of truth.

Is discipleship about personal sanctification or social reform?

Believers are divided on a question central to Christian identity: what does it mean to follow Jesus? For centuries, imitating Christ meant the pursuit of holiness, conforming the self to Jesus through self-sacrifice in order to join him in eternal life. But some Christians today consider this model to be self-centered. Instead, they say, true disciples ought to imitate Jesus in confronting corrupt social systems on behalf of the oppressed.

In Imitating Christ,esteemed New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson seeks the origin of this fissure. Surveying the New Testament, medieval mysticism, modern theology, and more, Johnson shows how twentieth-century social-gospel and liberation theologies created a new model of discipleship. He then evaluates the theological implications of the two models and asks what we can learn from each. Inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thomas Merton, Johnson puts forward a vision of discipleship that can revitalize Christian witness in the world today. Replete with keen exegesis and spiritual insight, Imitating Christ reorients Christian living toward pursuing sainthood. Pastors and interested lay readers alike will rediscover a rich heritage in these pages.

Scripture points to the human body and lived experience as the preeminent arena of God's continuing revelation in the world, says Luke Timothy Johnson. Attentively discerning the manifestations of God's Spirit in and through the body is essential for theology to recover its nature as an inductive art rather than -- as traditionally conceived -- a deductive science.

Willingness to risk engaging actual human situations -- as opposed to abstract conceptualizations of those situations -- is required of the theologian, Johnson argues. He celebrates the intimations of divine presence and power in such human experiences as play, pain, pleasure, work, and aging, showing how theology can respond faithfully to the living God only by paying due attention to human bodily experience.

The Acts of the Apostles is really the second volume in the two-part writing scholars call Luke-Acts. It continues the story begun in the Gospel of Luke, showing how the Good News offered by Jesus to the outcast of the people was eventually extended to the end of the earth," so that Gentiles as well as Jews came to share in the blessings of God.

This commentary treats Luke-Acts as an apologetic history. It takes with equal seriousness both Luke''s literary artistry and his historical interests, fitting his methods comfortably within the ancient standards of historiography. This perspective illustrates in particular that Luke''s historical narrative serves a definite religious intent. Tracing that intent through the specific contours of Luke''s story is the special contribution of this commentary.

What makes this commentary on Luke stand apart from others is that, from beginning to end, this is a literary analysis. Because it focuses solely on the gospel as it appears and not on its source or origin, this commentary richly and thoroughly explores just what Luke is saying and how he says it.

Luke Timothy Johnson begins his study of the practical issue of how decisions are made in the church by admitting to a bias: that there ought to be a connection between what the church claims to be, and how it does things. Because the church claims to be a community of faith, it does not reach decisions simply on the basis of good management policy, or the analysis of market trends, or efficiency, or even ideological consistency, but in response to God''s activity in the world that presses upon us and urges us to decision. Faced with how to respond to God''s leading, the church decides what to do on the basis of two realities: Scripture and discernment. Because it calls the church into being Scripture is the fundamental authority in the church''s life. Yet it is not enough for a congregation simply to turn to the Bible when a decision must be reached, for Scripture does not directly address all issues which face the church today, and those it does often reflect greatly differing historical and social contexts than our own. Thus, added to the authority of Scripture in the church''s decision making is a process of discernment, in which the members of the community--under the guidance of the Holy Spirit--recall how God has worked in their lives as individuals and as a community and discern together God''s direction for the future. Johnson argues that this very pattern of decision making can be found in Scripture itself, notably in one of the central events of the book of Acts. Beginning with the conversion of Cornelius and culminating in the Apostolic Council of Acts 15, we see how a string of smaller narratives combine to tell the story of God''s movement within their midst, and how this narrative became the basis for the reinterpretation of Scripture and the inclusion of Gentiles into the fellowship of the church. Looking at a number of thorny issues facing the contemporary church, Johnson demonstrates how the interaction of Scripture and discernment can and must become the basis for how we respond to the decisions with which the church wrestles today.