Luke Timothy Johnson

Luke Timothy Johnson (born November 20, 1943 in Park Falls , Wisconsin ) is an American , Catholic New Testament scholar and professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Emory University .

Family and ecclesiastical career

Luke Johnson is the son of Merland Johnson and his wife Bernice, nee Teeters. He attended public and church schools. In 1963 he became a Benedictine - monk at Saint Joseph Abbey in Saint Benedict , Louisiana . From 1963 to 1972 he received his BA in Philosophy at the Notre-Dame Seminary in New Orleans , parallel to this his Master of Divinity in years at the Saint Meinrad School of Theology , Saint Meinrad , Indiana . Graduated from Indiana University with an MA in Religious Studies and a Ph.D. in 1970. upgraded to New Testament Studies at Yale University in 1976 . In 1968 he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest . Johnson gave up both tasks, the monk and the priest, in 1972 and allowed himself to be laicized . In 1974 he married Joy Randazzo; he is stepfather of six and father of one daughter, Tiffany Johnson. He has also taught at St. Meinrad, Saint Joseph Seminary College, Yale Divinity School, and Indiana University. He is a member of several professional associations and has various editorial positions.

Education

Johnson studied at Notre Dame Seminary (in New Orleans ), where he graduated with a BA in Philosophy in 1966 , then at the Saint Meinrad School of Theology ( M.Div. 1970), at Indiana University Bloomington ( MA in Religious Studies , likewise) and 1970) of Yale University , where he in 1976 for his dissertation on the Literary Function of Possessions in Luke-Acts the Ph.D. acquired for New Testament .

Teaching and Research

From 1970 Johnson worked as an assistant professor, in 1979 he became Associate Professor of New Testament at Yale University and finally in 1988 Professor at Emory University (in Atlanta , Georgia ), where he held the Robert W. Woodruff Professorship for "New Testament and Christian Origins" holds (at the Candler School of Theology ), he is also a "Senior Fellow" at this university at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion.

Johnson's research focuses on the Jewish and Greco-Roman environment of early Christianity as well as the following New Testament books: The Gospel of Luke , the Acts of the Apostles , the Pastoral Epistles and the Epistle of James .

When asked about the historical Jesus , he is a well-known critic of the Jesus seminar and its methodology. A representative of this seminar, Robert M. Price , described Johnson as an “ecclesiastical spin doctor” with “neoconservative traditionalist positions” who advocated “the greatest possible conservatism ”. While Johnson is conservative on the historicity of Jesus and Christology , he is considered liberal on some other issues by deviating from the Vatican line ; For example, he advocates the religious ordination of women (in his book The Creed , 2003).

Recognized by the Grawemeyer Award

In 2011 he was awarded the Grawemeyer Award in the Religion category by the University of Louisville for his book Among the Gentiles (2009) . In it, Johnson considers four areas of Jewish, Gentile and Christianity at the time of the New Testament and pays attention to similarities and similarities: How religion (1) grants a share in divine goods such as healing or wisdom, (2) promotes moral change, ( 3) helps to overcome the world and (4) contributes to the stabilization of society.

At the award ceremony, the importance of this historical study for the interreligious relations of the present was pointed out. In a critical review of this book, Robert Louis Wilken refers to essential differences between paganism and early Christianity, as well as the clear rejection of pagan practices expressed in New Testament writings.

Books by Johnson

• Contested Issues in Christian Origins and the New Testament: Collected Essays (= Supplements to Novum Testamentum ). 2013.
• Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians. 2011.
• The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction . 2010.
• Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity. 2009.
• Hebrews: A Commentary. 2006.
• The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters . Doubleday, 2003 (On the Coming of the Nicano-Constantinopolitan Creed and Its Present Significance).
• Brother of Jesus, Friend of God: Studies in the Letter of James . 2004.
• Future of Catholic Biblical Scholarship: A Constructive Conversation. 2002.
• The First and Second Letters to Timothy: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (= Anchor Bible). 2001 (argues for Paul as the author of these two letters).
• Living Jesus: Learning the Heart of the Gospel . 1999 (critical of the Jesus seminar).
• Religious Experience: A Missing Dimension in New Testament Studies . 1998.
• Reading Romans: A Literary and Theological Commentary (= Reading the New Testament; 6). 1997.
• Letters to Paul's Delegates: A Commentary on 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus . 1996.
• Scripture and Discernment: Decision Making in the Church . 1996.
• The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels . 1996 (critical of the Jesus seminar).
• The Letter of James (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries). 1995.
• Proclamation 5: Interpreting the Lessons of the Church Year . 1993.
• The Acts of the Apostles (Commentary) (= Sacra pagina series; 5). Liturgical Press, 1992.
• The Gospel of Luke (commentary) (= Sacra pagina series; 3). Minnesota 1991.
• Faith's Freedom: A Classic Spirituality for Contemporary Christians . 1990.
• 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus . 1987.
• The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation . 1986, 3rd edition 2010.
• Decision Making in the Church: A Biblical Model . 1983.
• Luke Acts: A Story of Prophet and People. 1982.
• Some Hard Blessings: Meditations on the Beatitudes in Matthew . 1981.
• Sharing Possessions: Mandate and Symbol of Faith . 1981.
• Invitation to the Letters of Paul III: Ephesians, Colossians, Pastorals (Commentary). 1980.
• The Literary Function of Possessions in Luke Acts . Scholars Press, 1977 ( dissertation ).
• Teaching Religion to Undergraduates . 1973.

Web links

• Emory University, Law
• Emory University, Faculty of Theology
• encyclopedia.com Luke Timothy Johnson at enzyclopedia.com
• Photography by Luke Timothy Johnson [1]

Single receipts

1. ↑ Robert M. Price reviewed Johnson's book The Real Jesus . .
2. ↑ Carl E. Olson gives an assessment from a conservative Catholic point of view in his review of the book The Creed (Olson et al .: “Ostensibly written from within the 'Roman Catholic tradition' the book is sometimes insightful, occasionally muddled, and often marred by strong polemics against Church doctrine. ").
3. ↑ Ancient religions had much in common, says Grawemeyer winner. In: Grawemeyer Award . Retrieved March 4, 2014 . 
4. ^ The Christian Difference. Review of Among the Gentiles . (No longer available online.) In: First Things. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014 ; accessed on March 4, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.