Research Seminar Handout 23.3.15

Waterlings from Water: Exploring a Cosmological Reading of “Living Water” in John 4:4-42 amidst the Braided Rivers of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand

Context

• The Braided Rivers and Plains of Canterbury
• Cosmic Understandings of Water
• Use of Water Contested

Methodology

• “The experienced cosmology” of pre-modern humanity: 1) articulates the link between cosmology and the human person; 2) considers “the world” as the resting place for humanity; 3) links cosmology to wisdom; and 4) leads to contemplation (theōria) as the precursor to ethical action.

Rémi Brague, The Wisdom of the World: The Human Experience of the Universe in Western Thought (trans. Teresa Lavender Faga; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 4-6. 

• Johannine Symbolism - multiple contexts and its multifold meanings

Background of Ancient Conflict

• Jn 4:9 - Shechem - Gen 48:22; cf. 33:19; Josh 24:32

An Overflowing Well and Standing in Flowing Waters

• Jacob Traditions
• 5 So Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well (pēgē) was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well (pēgē). It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a   drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water (phrear)?12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well (phrear), and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring (pēgē) 28 Then the woman left her water jar…

‘Experienced Cosmology’ Leading to Wisdom

• “the fountains of the deep” (Gen 7:11; 8:2; Job 38:16); “underground waters welling up” (Deut 8:7); “fountain of living water” (17:13); two understandings ( Prov 8:24); Springs (Jer 2:13; Prov 8:24; Ps 104:10)
•  Cosmic creation  – human building and filling of houses “with wisdom”
• Water – Divine Wisdom (Prov 13:14; 18:4; Ps 104)

Releasing Living Water

Conclusion for Waterlings from Water

My Project Question: Can the cosmological horizon of the prologue and that of present-day readers, informed by twenty-first century cosmologies and evolutionary biology, meet to inspire a transforming spirituality and ethical action in the urgent ecological concerns of our age?

Steps towards Developing: An eschatological cosmological (present-oriented) framework for reading the prologue of John and the gospel that follows: 

Publications:  

Academic

• “The Implications of the Cosmology of the Prologue for Johannine Eschatology.” Australian Theological Forum E-Journal (Inaugural Edition. Forthcoming March 2015).
• “On the Crossroads between Life and Death: Reading Birth Imagery in John in the Earthquake Changed Regions of Otautahi Christchurch.” In Bible, Borders, Belonging(s): Engaging Readings from Oceania. Jione Havea, David Neville and Elaine Wainwright. Eds. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 57-72, 2014.
• “The Cosmology of John 1:1-14 and Its Implications for Ethical Action in this Ecological Age.” Colloquium 45.2. 2013: 137-153.

Non-Academic

• “‘Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls into the Earth …’ John 12:24: Fifth Sunday of Lent.” Tui Motu InterIslands March 2015:26-27.
• “Expand the Mind: Jesus and the Landscape. 1^st Sunday of Lent: Mark 1:1215.” Tui Motu InterIslands February 2015:26-27.
• “‘God So Loved the World.’ John 3:16-18 Trinity Sunday.” Tui Motu InterIslands June 2014:26-27. (www.tuimotu.org)
• “Living Water from an Overflowing Well. John 4:4-42.” Tui Motu InterIslands March 2014:26-27.

               (www.tuimotu.org)

Papers Given:

• “Re-discovering the Ethical Power of the Cosmology and Eschatology of the Prologue of John for Ecological Action.” Rediscovering the Spiritual in God’s Creation Conference, Adelaide, Australia (10-13 March 2015).
• “Waterlings from Water: Exploring a Cosmological Reading of ‘Living Water’ in John 4:4-42 amidst the Braided Rivers of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand.” SBL Meeting, San Diego (21-25 November, 2014).
• “The Implications of the Cosmology of the Prologue for Johannine Eschatology,” Australian Catholic Biblical Association Conference, Melbourne, Australia (3-6 July 2014).
• “Reading “Living Waters” amidst the Braided Rivers of Canterbury.” ANZAT (Combined) Auckland, New Zealand (29 June-3 July 2013).
• “The Cosmology of John 1:1-14 and Its Implications for Ethical Action in this Ecological Age.” Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Biblical Studies. Auckland (1-2 December, 2012).
• “On the Crossroads between Life and Death: Reading Birth Imagery in John in the Earthquake Changed Regions of Otautahi Christchurch.” Symposium for Bible, Borders, Belongings Society of Biblical Literature Project. 19-21 April, 2012. Uniting Church College, Paramatta, Australia.
• “A Theological Cosmological-Rhetorical Reading of Flesh (Sarx) and Glory (Doxa) in John 1:1-18.” Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Biblical Studies, Christchurch, 5-6 December, 2011.
• “All That Is - The Fruit of the Divine Action of Creation: a Theological Cosmological, Rhetorical Reading of Flesh (Sarx) and Glory (Doxa) in John 1:1-18.” Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge UK. 23 March, 2011.