Abstract
The Gospel of John is popularly known for promoting a dualistic worldview. The language in the Gospel describes a world above and a world below, light and darkness, and truth and falsehood. This dualistic language also confronts the reader with a challenge to choose a side. One can either walk in darkness or walk in the light (Jn 12:35). One can be of the world or a follower of Jesus (Jn 15:18-19). Much of the imagery in the Gospel operates with these binary options and no middle ground. But is it appropriate to read all the characters who emerge in the Gospel according to this dualistic framework? In other words, how serious are we to take the Gospel's dualistic worldview for our interpretation of group boundaries and group belonging? Sung Uk Lim's Otherness and Identity in the Gospel of John challenges the popular reading of the Gospel's dualistic framework. This monograph comes as a revision of the author’s dissertation at Vanderbilt University, under the supervision of Fernando Segovia. It focuses on the minor characters within the Gospel story and puts forth a new way of observing how these characters lend themselves to a polyvalent understanding of otherness. As he argues, instead of the Gospel reinforcing a rhetoric of exclusion with its dualistic framework, Lim believes that the minor characters enhance a toleration of others (p. 1). His overall hope is that the reader may ‘reimagine the relationship between the self and others’ in order to ‘promote a culture of tolerance’ (p. 15).
The first chapter outlines the argument of the book and Lim's contextualized identity. Since this work primarily examines the ‘otherness’ of the Gospel's minor characters, it is important to understand what he means by this term. He defines ‘otherness’ as a ‘discursive process through which the dominant group (‘us’) establishes its own cultural identity by positing a difference, real or imaginary, from minority groups (‘them’)’ (p. 1). He also believes that the Gospel exploits the minor characters as part of the strategy to establish a Christian identity, and thus ‘others’ the characters within the narrative. After this brief definition, Lim describes his own contextualized identity. Indeed, he does what other New Testament scholars rarely do. He admits his Korean context and life experience, his ‘flesh and blood’ reality that partakes in the interpretation of the Gospel. After a brief biography, Lim puts forth the argument of the book. He states that the ‘minor characters in the Gospel of John can be reconstructed as challenging and destabilizing the dualistic Weltanschauung rather than becoming its victims’ (p. 6). As he claims, these minor characters not only subvert the imperial-colonial structures, but they also dialogically influence the identity of the readers—the Johannine community. In other words, the minor characters in the Gospel of John function to define the Johannine community (p. 5). This new reading is achieved through a hermeneutic of otherness, influenced by the work of Jacques Derrida, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Homi Bhabha.
Chapter 2 presents a review of various hermeneutical approaches Lim plans to explore for his reading of the Gospel. This review primarily surveys literary and ideological approaches. He notes that these approaches tend to victimize the minor characters and present them in stark contrast to the Jesus of John (p. 21). One notable exception is the work of Susan Hylen, who does not understand the Gospel's dualism as placing characters in extreme polarities. Hylen articulates the need to view the characters as containing paradoxical attributes. He also considers postcolonial and deconstructive criticism. Reviewing the benefits and weaknesses of these approaches, Lim puts forth a hermeneutical schema that includes a deconstruction, postcolonial, and narrative interpretive framework. Evident in all this is a preference for a dialogical analysis when developing the characterization of minor figures in the Gospel. He believes that the dialogical perspective makes it possible to consider that both the minor characters and Jesus influence one another as they interact. In contrast, a dialectical perspective assumes that Jesus' identity is placed in contrast or is in opposition to the minor characters (pp. 37–38). Through this dialogical perspective ‘both Jesus and minor characters have potential for the transformation of their identities throughout the narrative’ (p. 39). Drawing on these diverse techniques, Lim prioritizes narrative criticism while drawing on deconstructive postcolonialism as a ‘critical lens’ in his analysis of the Gospel's narrative world (p. 40).
Chapter 3 begins with a consideration of Nicodemus, focusing on contemporary scholarship concerned with whether or not he was a believer. Locating Nicodemus ‘in-between the Jewish community and the Johannine community’ (p. 43), Lim suggests that Nicodemus is a character who helps us escape the ‘trap of binary thinking’ and thus plays a ‘major role in subverting the pervasive dualism’ in the Gospel (p. 45).
Chapter 4 examines the role the Samaritan woman has in constructing otherness from within the Johannine community. By noting how the Samaritan woman utilizes mimicry, Lim notes that her role within the narrative destabilizes the dualism of the Johannine Gospel. Specifically, the woman actively investigates Jesus' identity by taking over the dialogue and becomes a spokesperson for the colonized Samaritans (pp. 80–82). He additionally considers the elements of the Samaritan woman's actions that are subversive: imitating Jesus as missionary, illuminating Jesus' ‘ambivalent racial-ethnic and political identity’ (p. 87), and blurring the boundaries between the colonizer and the colonized in the interaction. As Lim concludes, she resists ‘both the dualism of the Johannine world and the hierarchical power structure of the Jewish Roman world’ (p. 95).
Chapter 5 constructs the otherness of Pontius Pilate and the Jews. Here, Lim demonstrates how otherness is shaped by how each of these characters relate to themselves and to Jesus. Power dynamics are in flux in these passages. Specifically, Lim highlights how the identity of both Pilate and the Jews is unstable, thus demonstrating how the concept of ‘otherness is flexible and mutable beyond the limits of binary thinking’ (p. 131). Jesus is both empowered and disempowered, a king but not a king, subject to the legal system but not subject, and an insider and outsider.
Chapter 6 explores how Jesus' gendered identity performs both feminine and masculine roles. This latter point about the fluctuating gendered identity of Jesus was perhaps the most illuminating and interesting part of the chapter. Primarily basing his understanding of gender on the work of Judith Butler, Lim highlights how Jesus transgresses boundaries of gender through the birthing of God's children, including the Johannine community, and with his death on the Cross (pp. 150–61). There are also illuminating conversations about how Jesus is presented in terms of Logos and Sophia.
Chapter 7 provides an overall conclusion to Lim's project, drawing out the implications it has for contemporary issues. Here, Lim argues dialectical frameworks of inclusion and exclusion in reading the characters in the Gospel have inherent weaknesses. As he contends, the minor characters in the Gospel play a major role in shaping our understanding of Jesus' identity and thus help free us from the Gospel's binary options. He helps point out the multifaceted identity of characters, recovers their positive contribution to the Gospel narrative, and challenges the assumption that the minor characters play a minor role in the Gospel narrative. This, perhaps, is the major contribution of this book and well worth its study.
Overall, Lim's exploration of the minor characters in the Gospel provides an important and much needed contribution to Johannine studies. We may have been accustomed to thinking that the Gospel's dualism is the only grid to interpret the boundaries between believers and unbelievers. This binary thinking has profound effects when applied to human life. Many people are not located in these extreme polarities but in the liminal space between these options. Lim forces us to specifically examine the characters in the Gospel, thus apprehending that this dualistic framework is untenable.
However, some of the portrayals of Jesus deserve further development. For example, the first study on Jesus' identity in chapter 4 concludes that Jesus' identity begins as a monolithic character and later becomes multifaceted (pp. 63–69). This assessment was somewhat tenuous, considering the description of Jesus within the prologue. For example, within the prologue, readers already have hints that Jesus is not just a cosmic figure but one who inhabits the land of his own people (Jn 1:10-11). The identity of Jesus as a Son, the Logos, and as a human being who journeys to his own people is a multifaceted identity that develops throughout the narrative.
Additionally, I was curious how Lim differentiates between travel and colonization in his reading of Jesus' journey. In other words, can you be a colonizer if you exert no political power or control over land? My concern with the portrayal of Jesus as a colonizer in chapter 5 is that any form of travel can be interpreted as a colonial activity. Lim's interpretation of Jesus' journey into Samaria blurs the distinction between migration and colonialism. There is a difference between (1) traveling to a foreign land to subdue and extract its resources and (2) traveling to a foreign land and becoming dependent upon the indigenous people for your survival and nourishment. The difference is that of power. This is not to say that the Gospel does not reflect any colonial activity, nor that one should disregard the imperial motifs and themes. I simply remain unconvinced that Jesus as a colonizer is the best motif to interpret his travel experiences. Jesus is better framed as a migrant who travels to a foreign land and becomes dependent upon the hospitality of others for survival.
Lastly, in chapter 6, the portrayal of the mother of Jesus and the Beloved Disciple as figures who cross over racial/ethnic boundaries seems to focus on a racial distinction where there perhaps is none. Would a Galilean Jew view themselves racially or ethnically different from Judean Jews? They worship the same God, observe the same customs, speak the same language, practice the same rituals, and share the same ancestry. The only distinction would be the homeland, which is minor in comparison to all the other similarities. I remain curious about Lim's understanding of race/ethnicity and his definitions of these terms which were not spelled out in the main body of the text. Certainly, the chapter does explore the complicated and debatable use of the term ‘Jew’ within the Gospel.
Nonetheless, my critiques are minor in comparison to the overall contribution and impact that Lim's study of the Gospel's minor characters makes. Lim provides a new look at the Gospel's dualism and helps readers recognize that not everything or everyone within the Gospel fits neatly into these binary oppositions. His study of the minor characters must disabuse us from minimizing the impact that Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and Pilate have upon the Gospel's narrative world. My hope is that this book would challenge scholars and students alike to understand that the binary oppositions of the Gospel's dualistic framework provide space for those in-between, those in the liminal space of light and darkness.