Imaginative Love in John

This study examines love in John’s Gospel. It attempts to answer the question of how love in the Johannine Gospel receives its narratively-imaginative stature. Like any other narrative, John’s Gospel concretizes a number of circumstances of its characters. Thus it develops a love story which is different from any other narrative. Much attention is given to the cultural contextualization as well as to the narrative and imaginative textualizations of the various love relationships. In this, Jesus’ relationships with his beloved disciple plays a central role. The study concludes that all other love relations - the relationship of Jesus with His father, mother, brothers and sisters, with John the Baptist, with Peter and the other disciples, and with particular women and men - derive their colour and content from this specific relationship.