Sharon Ringe sheds new light on a heretofore neglected aspect of the Fourth Gospel—friendship—and through it links the concepts of community and Wisdom Christology. According to Ringe, this connection between Johannine ecclesiology and Christology is critical for understanding the Fourth Gospel. In John’s Gospel, Jesus Christ is the incarnate Wisdom who befriends those who receive him, and also makes them friends of God and of one another. The Church is the community of those who are bound together by the commandment to love (befriend) one another and to embody the divine Wisdom in their lives. Westminster John Knox.
