Johannine Wisdom Christology in Chinese contexts

Modern Johannine scholarship has generally agreed that Jewish wisdom literature constitutes the background to the concept of the Logos in the Fourth Gospel. However, regarding the topic of Johannine Wisdom Christology (JWC), there are still gaps and questions remaining after previous studies. While these previous discussions of JWC rely heavily on the apocryphal wisdom books from a Hellenistic perspective, there also exists a significant disconnection between JWC in the Prologue and the rest of John’s Gospel. Engaging with the sapiential terminologies, motifs, and concepts in John, this project presents a type of Johannine Spirit Christology based on Wisdom and the Spirit’s mutual relationship in Jewish wisdom literature; then, through the lens of Jewish Wisdom, this research seeks to explore the holistic view of life in John. Contributing to the longstanding tradition of regarding Christ as the bread of life in the Chinese Church, this project defines the embodiment of Christ in humanity as the bread of life through the cooperation between Wisdom and the Spirit. As the incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ imparts a holistic life to his followers in the Spirit. In my trialogue between ancient Chinese wisdom, JWC, and Watchman Nee’s distinctive Wisdom Christology and its spiritual food theology, this study responds to the moral and ethical concerns embedded in traditional Chinese culture. A reconstructed theology of spiritual food in the light of JWC is invaluable to complement or even fulfil the Chinese ideal of ‘heaven and humanity in unity’.