Beyond Suspicion? The Fatherhood of God in the Fourth Gospel

Abstract

This discussion of fatherhood in John's Gospel shows the importance of a hermeneutic of suspicion in reinterpreting the text within new hermeneutical frameworks. Suspicion, unlike alienation, is part of an ongoing dialogue between text and reader. It does not foreclose on future possibilities for affirmation in creative re-readings of the text. While it cannot of itself deliver new interpretations, its challenging questioning can open frontiers within the text, exposing horizons of meaning that only a creative hermeneutic of affirmation can grasp. In this sense, suspicion and affirmation belong together as two sides of the same interpretative coin. The same dynamic is operative in grasping the anti-patriarchal nature of fatherhood in the Fourth Gospel.