The Luminaries series is a collection of interviews with premier thinkers working in the theological academy and the church.

Fr. John Behr is the Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen and an esteemed scholar of the patristics, having published several translations of various Church Fathers and monographs of his own on patristic figures and patristic theology. 

Here we discuss the Gospel of John, Irenaeus and Origen, and the mystery of Christ and of life in death.

PODCAST LINKS:

Blog post: https://wipfandstock.com/blog/2023/01/10/luminaries-john-behr-the-gospel-of-john-irenaeus-and-origen-and-the-mystery-of-life-in-death/

Fr. Behr's website: https://frjohnbehr.com/

CONNECT:

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SOURCES MENTIONED:

Ashton, John. Understanding the Fourth Gospel.

Athanasius. On the Incarnation.

Behr, John. Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement.

———. Irenaeus of Lyons: Identifying Christianity.

———. John the Theologian and his Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology.

———. The Nicene Faith. Formation of Christian Theology 2.

———. The Way to Nicaea. Formation of Christian Theology 1.

———, and Conor Cunningham, eds. The Role of Death in Life: A Multidisciplinary Examination of the Relationship between Life and Death.

Brown, Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity.

Derrida, Jacques. The Gift of Death.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Possessed.

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. 3 vols.

Henry, Michel. I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy of Christianity.

———. Incarnation: A Philosophy of the Flesh.

———. Words of Christ.

Käsemann, Ernst. The Testament of Jesus: A Study of the Gospel of John in the Light of Chapter 17.

Origen. On First Principles. Translated by John Behr.

Sanders, E. P. Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion.

OUTLINE:

(01:31) – Diner coffee and assam/lapsang souchong tea

(02:31) – John the Theologian

(09:01) – Rediscovering modern philosophy

(10:42) – The Prologue to the Gospel of John

(18:11) – “And the Word was towards God”

(27:07) – Contemporary scholarship on Irenaeus

(30:43) – The “Great Church” and heresy

(37:30) – The body: Church fathers, Peter Brown, Foucault

(41:33) – Origen in translation

(52:11) – Death: re-thinking “it is finished”

(01:04:53) – What’s wrong with “the Bible”

(01:11:43) – Original sin and the Fall