What We Have Heard from the Beginning: The Past, Present and Future of Johannine Studies

15: Response: Toward an Interdisciplinary Approach to Johannine Studies

307 In “Johannine Studies and the Geopolitical: Reflections Upon Absence and Irruption,” Fernando F. Segovia calls the next generation of scholars to take seriously the geopolitical matrix of the Johannine Literature, particularly the imperial–colonial framework of Rome, in the production and interpretive history of these texts. Segovia opens this call with a brief analysis of Richard Horsley’s Jesus and Empire (2003), not only to highlight Horsley’s critical perspective on why geopolitical considerations are absent from early Christian studies generally, but also to launch his own argument that such discussion is missing from Johannine Studies in particular. Segovia, however, sees an irruption, sparked by postcolonial criticism (postcolonial optic), of new efforts to engage the broad range of geopolitical issues and arenas vis–à–vis Johannine Studies, as reflected in Dube and Staley’s John and Postcolonialism (2002). The majority of Segovia ’s reflections take the form of a critical engagement with the essays in this important volume, which serves as a point of departure for critical exchanges regarding their author’s understandings, approaches, and interpretations of various Johannine texts from a postcolonial optic that aims to engage the geopolitical. I certainly agree with Segovia’s assertion that the geopolitical question needs much more attention in Johannine Studies, but I would like 15: Response TOWARD AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO JOHANNINE STUDIES Francisco Lozada Jr. 308 FRANCISCO LOZADA JR. to ask, “What would it take for the next generation to answer this call?” I would argue that to address this question, Johannine scholars must become much more informed about three interrelated arenas of the geopolitical : (1) the cultural arena, with its various competing discourses of power; (2) the economic arena and its range of policies and ramifications; and (3) the political arena, with its assortment of models of governance and their effects. Essentially, I would argue that Johannine scholars must move toward a more interdisciplinary approach to address these arenas. In other words, I am suggesting that to address the question of the geopolitical in Johannine Studies, the next generation of scholars will need to be just as aware of the world they live in as they are of the world behind the text, for it is this world now that continues to inform our questions and approaches to the Fourth Gospel. The remainder of my remarks will briefly outline key considerations related to these three arenas. One area that I believe needs closer attention is the study of culture and society, particularly with a focus on ways that race/ethnicity, sexuality, ability, citizenship, gender, nationality, class, and language function to define or construct identities. A focus on how these social identity factors are related to one another and how they are related to power within a society is also very important. I see all of these identity factors as part of the geopolitical dimension in Johannine Studies. For example, exploring culture and society through the lens of these contested identity factors in the Johannine text is essential to a better understanding of how notions of identity and difference have (and still do) affirm racial, ethnic, class, and gender distinctions, how they were once applied within European colonial powers, and how they are now elaborated among neo–colonial powers. The question of belonging and exclusion, the increase of politics of identity, especially centered on religious concerns, shows no sign of abating within the period of the next generation of Johannine scholars. A second area that warrants closer examination is the study of economics , with a focus on globalization and its powerful neo–colonial ramifications . I do believe that there are benefits to globalization, but there are also negative effects that call for a closer analysis of how it is applied throughout various international local and global economies. Informed by a contemporary examination of these issues, Johannine scholars will better understand various ancient forms or glimpses of globalization, particularly its effects on the homogenization of culture. In other words, if one studies the global development of capitalism and its effect of converging cultures and lifestyles across the globe (e.g., Starbucks–drinking or McDonald’s–eating), one might better understand how the Fourth Gospel converged ancient communities, for example in relationship to universalism and particularism, which eventually produced various out- TOWARD AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH 309 comes for the Johannine community and within various communities in our world. The final area that I see as part of the geopolitical question is...