Kim Haines-Eitzen, "The Gospel of John: A Biography" (Princeton UP, 2026)

About this episode

Kim Haines-Eitzen discusses the complex legacy of the Gospel of John and its impact throughout history.

The contentious life and times of the most widely cited book of the New Testament. Written some two thousand years ago, the Gospel of John is the only Christian Gospel to place Jesus at the creation of the world, and the only one where we find the stories of the raising of Lazarus, the woman taken in adultery, and the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana. The Gospel of John also points an accusing finger at Jesus’s Jewish opponents and has been used by medieval crusaders, Protestant reformers, and white supremacists to legitimize antisemitic violence. In The Gospel of John: A Biography (Princeton UP, 2026) Kim Haines-Eitzen traces the legacy of this complex, beautiful, and at times deeply troubling work, from its composition in the late first century to its enduring power today. Haines-Eitzen sheds light on the book’s reception by early Christian gnostic and patristic commentators, its use in the Crusades and Reformation, its revered status among American evangelicals, and the many ways it has inspired novels, films, music, and art. The earliest papyrus fragment of an identifiably Christian Gospel is a fragment of John, and John is the only canonical Gospel that…

People in this episode

Guest: Kim Haines-Eitzen

Topics covered

• New Testament
• Gospel of John
• Christianity
• Antisemitism
• Religious Influence
• Historical Reception

Keywords

• Gospel of John
• Christianity
• Antisemitism
• historical context
• religious influence
• Kim Haines-Eitzen
• biography

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Gospel of John: A Biography, The Gospel of John

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