Christopher Seglenieks works at the Bible College of South Australia, an affiliated college of the Australian College of Theology.Christopher W. Skinner is professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and Graduate Program Director in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago.

• List of Tables and FiguresAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroductionChristopher W. Skinner and Christopher SeglenieksChapter 1: The Rise, Demise, and Afterlives of the Johannine CommunityChristopher W. SkinnerPart I: New Approaches to the Johannine CommunityChapter 2: Reading the Johannine Community in the Letters: A MethodChristopher SeglenieksChapter 3: The Language of John: Idiolect, Sociolect, Antilanguage, and Textual CommunityDavid A. LambChapter 4: Disentangling “Mom’s Spaghetti”: A Socio-Cognitive Approach to the Complexity of the Johannine CommunityChristopher PorterChapter 5: Triangulating a Johannine Community from John 18:28—19:22Laura J. HuntChapter 6: The Johannine Community and the Johannine Community Vision: Historical Reflection, Rhetorical Construction, and Narrative EcclesiologyAndrew J. ByersChapter 7: Renewing Johannine Historical Criticism: A ProposalHugo MéndezChapter 8: The Legacy of the Beloved Disciple: The Johannine Letters as Epistolary FictionElizabeth J. B. CorsarPart II: The Way Forward? Responses to the ProposalsChapter 9: Who Are the Children of God? Rhetoric, Memory, and Creating Communities with the Johannine WritingsAlicia D. MyersChapter 10: The Johannine Situation—An Advance over Imagined CommunitiesPaul N. AndersonChapter 11: Seeing with the Eyes and Hearing with the Ears: Community Hypotheses in Johannine ScholarshipAdele ReinhartzBibliographyAbout the Contributors

Most narratives are written by someone for someone. Was that the case for the Fourth Gospel? This illuminating collection enables a number of newer perspectives in the search for the Gospel's presumed origins. Gifted authors challenge long-accepted historical paradigms, raising questions that shine fresh light upon why this Jesus-story was written, how it was written, and for whom it was written. The Johannine Community in Contemporary Debate should become an important point of reference for all future discussions of these major interpretative issues.