Love, Loss, and Abjection

The Journey of New Birth in the Gospel of John

Baffes

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781498284110
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This study explores the premise that the experience of being "born from above" in John's Gospel can be seen as mirroring the development of human subjectivity, particularly as understood through the psychoanalytic work of Julia Kristeva. It draws specifically on Kristeva's theory of how the human self/subject takes shape in infancy, her contention that subjectivity is a work in progress, and her insistence on abjection as a catalyst for developing selfhood. Examining the story of Mary of Bethany (as narrated in John 11-12) through this lens, this analysis seeks to better understand the concept of new birth and how it relates to being fully human.

1

Rebirth through the Lens of Psychoanalytic Theory

In the Prologue to John’s gospel, readers learn almost immediately that humans “become children of God” (τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι; 1:12) not through ordinary human birth or natural descent, but through a vastly different process of being “born of God” (ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν; 1:13). The evangelist reveals nothing about how this process occurs, but we are told that it is through receiving the Logos and believing in his name (1:12) that human beings are given the “right” (ἐξουσία) to become God’s children.

This idea of a very different kind of birth finds fuller expression in the discourse between Jesus and Nicodemus in the third chapter of John’s gospel. In this passage (3:1–21), the Johannine Jesus states plainly that unless a person is “born from above” (γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν; 3:3, 7)42 or “born of water and Spirit” (γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος; 3:5), it is not possible to “see/enter the kingdom of God” (ἰδεῖν/εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ; 3:3, 5).

In this same discourse, when Jesus says to Nicodemus, “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστιν καὶ τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστιν; 3:6), it becomes clear that the evangelist is distinguishing between two levels of existence. Here, we begin to understand that being “born of God,” “born from above,” or “born of water and Spirit” involves becoming a new human being, one who must transition from the lower realm of “flesh” (σάρξ) to the higher realm of “Spirit” (πνεῦμά).

Contemporary Interpretations of New Birth in John

Because the evangelist weaves together so many different-but-related motifs to illustrate the complex idea of birth from above, interpreters tend to focus on discrete aspects of its meaning. Some liken it to the concepts of rebirth and regeneration in Gnostic and Hellenistic religions common at the time the Fourth Evangelist was writing. Others cite examples in Judaism that correspond to the Johannine idea of rebirth; these involve the eschatological idea of humans transformed into heavenly beings in a future age, a concept that shows up in Matthew, for example, as “regeneration,” “rebirth,” or “renewal of all things” (τῇ παλιγγενεσίᾳ; Matt 19:28).43 A concept similar to rebirth also appears in the early gospel tradition, as evidenced in Synoptic passages such as, “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3; Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17).44 Contemporary mainstream commentators, however, tend to interpret the Johannine concept of rebirth—and movement from the earthly to the heavenly realm—primarily in terms of one or more closely-related ideas: 1) becoming a child of God; 2) entering the kingdom of God; 3) receiving eternal life; and 4) attaining salvation.

Becoming a Child of God

Mainstream commentators such as Raymond E. Brown understand the Johannine concept of new birth primarily in terms of divine begetting. Brown explains rebirth first in terms of becoming a child of God: just as someone becomes human and enters the world as a result of being begotten by his father, an individual can only enter the kingdom of God by being “begotten by a heavenly Father.” Although the idea of divine begetting was not common in Hebrew Bible theology, Brown points to several sources as background for this notion: the early stages of the OT tradition, which include the idea of the people of Israel as God’s first-born, and the post-exilic stage in which certain Israelites were said to be sons of God.45

As Brown clarifies, the evangelist likens begetting by God to the outpouring of the Spirit: “if natural life is attributable to God’s giving spirit to men, so eternal life begins when God gives His Holy Spirit to men,”46 and this gift from God suggests the presence of an entirely new spirit within the person. Brown suggests that John may have found a connection between begetting by God and the gift of the spirit in Jub 1:23–25: “I will create in them a holy spirit and I will cleanse them . . . I will be their Father and they shall be my children.”47 Believers familiar with this part of the tradition would have understood that the outpouring of the Spirit would prepare them for entry into the kingdom of God and for becoming children of God.

Brown then likens the contrast between flesh (σάρξ) and spirit (πνεῦμά) in v. 6 of the Nicodemus discourse to the distinction between earthly humans and those who are children of God. Here, the contrast between flesh and spirit is not the same as the Greek separation of body and soul, nor is it a Gnostic dualism between the material and spiritual. Brown reminds us that man as he is physically born into the world is both material and spiritual, and he cites Gen 2:7 in clarifying that “the contrast between flesh and Spirit is that between man as he is . . . and man as Jesus can make him by giving him a holy Spirit.”48

Entering the Kingdom of God

Rudolf Schnackenburg is one interpreter who understands birth from above primarily as being granted access to the divine and heavenly realm—the kingdom of God. In his view, “from above” (ἄνωθεν) refers to the divine world, the dwelling-place of God, the kingdom of God, the heavenly realm to which Jesus leads the way; in new birth, the individual is transferred to this dwelling-place of God. Schnackenburg points out that the concept of a higher realm as the dwelling-place of God was a familiar construct in Judaism, one that listeners would have readily recognized. Jewish listeners also would have understood the idea of being transformed by the Spirit in order to fulfill the law of God and enter God’s kingdom. The fundamental difference between the two realms of existence—σάρξ and πνεῦμά—is what accounts for humans’ inability to enter the kingdom of God on their own. As a result of being born of the earth, humans belong to the world of flesh, and the world of spirit constitutes “a different order of being” that is inaccessible to them. Those who are born of flesh are only that, and those who are born of the Spirit are able to enter the higher, divine realm:49 “earthly man must be born ‘from above,’ which means in fact being created anew out of the divine spirit of life; he cannot attain to God’s heavenly world otherwise.”50 From this perspective, Jesus is a heavenly representative who comes to give those in the earthly realm the po...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
The Fourth Evangelist’s Understanding of Humanity
• Chapter 1: Rebirth through the Lens of Psychoanalytic Theory
• Chapter 2: The World as Illusion
• Chapter 3: The Boundary of Transformation
• Chapter 4: A Radically Different Life
• Chapter 5: The Journey of New Birth
• Appendix: Subjectivity in Psychoanalytic Theory and Rebirth in the Gospel of John
• Bibliography