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The Community of the Beloved Disciple (1979) is a book by Raymond E. Brown.

Abstract

An international bestseller.

"This study in Johannine ecclesiology reconstructs the history of one Christian community in the first century -- a community whose life from its inception to its last hour is reflected in the Gospel and Epistles of John. It was a community that struggled with the world, with the Jews, and with other Christians. Eventually the struggle spread even to its own ranks. It was, in short, a community not unlike the Church of today. This book offers a different view of the traditional Johannine eagle. In the Gospel the eagle soars above the earth, but with talons bared for the fray. In the Epistles we discover the eaglets tearing at each other for possession of the nest. This book pulls together 25 years of the author's research into John. It explains why he calls Johannine thought "the most adventuresome theology in the New Testament."--Publisher description.

Editions

Published in New York: Paulist Press; and London [England]: Chapman, 1979.

Translations

• La communauté du disciple bien-aimé = The Community of the Beloved Disciple (1983 Brown / Godefroid), book (French ed.)

• La comunidad del discípulo amado = The Community of the Beloved Disciple (1983 @1979 Brown / Martínez Goñi), book (Spanish ed.)

Contents

• Introduction: Problem and Method in Discerning Johannine Ecclesiology
• Phase One: Before the Gospel-Johannine Community Origins
  • The Originating Group and a Lower Christology
  • The Admission of a Second Group and a Higher Christology
  • The Gentiles and a More Universalist Outlook
• Phase Two: When the Gospel Was Written-Johannine Relations to Outsiders
  • Non-Believers Detectable in the Gospel
  • Other Christians Detectable in the Gospel
  • Was the Johannine Community a Sect?
• Phase Three: When the Epistles were Written-Johannine Internal Struggles
  • The Life-Situation Envisaged in the Epistles
  • The Areas of Dispute
• Phase Four: After the Epistles-Johannine Dissolution
  • The History of the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century
  • The Secessionists and Second Century Heterodoxy
  • The Author's Adherents and the Great Church
  • Reflection
• Summary Charts
• Appendix I: Recent Reconstructions of Johannine Community History
• Appendix II: Roles of Women in the Fourth Gospel

External links

• Google Books (partial text)