Discover a Different Side of Jesus

Jesus and the Feminine
in the Gospel of John

Lecture and Weekend Workshop

Free Lecture

Friday March 4, 7:00 PM

How to Read and Understand the Gospel of John

Get to know the characters, the settings in time and place, and the plot line of this spiritual masterpiece.
Learn to find meaning in the gospel through a literary-comparative approach that opens up its symbolism. Free-will offerings welcome.

Interactive Weekend Workshop

Saturday & Sunday, March 25-27

Jesus and the Feminine in the Gospel of John

The good news of Christ says Jesus died and rose on the third day. In mythology, a deity who dies and rises on the third day is a moon god, a son of the Great Mother.

Could there be significant feminine elements in the symbolism of Christ as well?

Using the Gospel of John as a test case, we’ll analyze four important texts to see whether John’s portrait of Christ includes meaningful feminine symbolism.

Each of the texts is linked to a significant narrative turning point in the plot of the gospel. In other words, the plot structure of John’s gospel highlights each of the texts we’ll study. The Bread of Life discourse (Jn. 6) brings the first report in John of a public rejection of Jesus. In response to the Raising of Lazarus (Jn. 11), the authorities explicitly plot to kill Jesus. The True Vine “parable” (Jn. 15) opens a “re-start” of the farewell teachings Jesus shares with his disciples on their last night together. Christ’s Easter appearance to Mary Magdalene (Jn. 20) is the first of the four resurrection appearances described in this gospel.

What’s more, each of these texts uses highly symbolic images in its characterization of Jesus. Because these texts are more symbolic than discursive, more poetic than journalistic, we’ll analyze and interpret them by using an appropriately symbolic method. Taking this approach will allow us to see the richness of meaning condensed into the gospel’s Christological symbolism.

Robert Neuwoehner, PhD, will lead this study based on his book, Moonlight Shines in the Darkness: A Psychosymbolic Reading of Jesus and the Feminine in the Fourth Gospel — available on online in print and eBook formats from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Free Lecture

How to Read and Understand the Gospel of John
Friday, March 4, 7:00 PM
Free will offerings welcome

Weekend Workshop

Jesus and the Feminine in the Gospel of John
Friday-Sunday, March 25-27
Christ’s Church members: $45
Members of the general public: $55

To Register

Click here, or
Call the church office: 303-688-5185

Bob is a gifted teacher, and an expert on the Gospel of John. He has taught other well-received Christian Formation classes for us, and we at Christ’s Church are looking forward to this latest offering. I know it will be both intriguing and well worth your while.

— Fr. Brian Winter, Rector, Christ’s Episcopal Church

 

Dr. Neuwoehner is an audacious scholar. Not content with profound enquiry and study, he throws unimagined – thus, unimaginable – ideas at us. The title of his book, Moonlight Shines in the Darkness, is a clue to the postulation that drives his story. The moon is a symbol of “the feminine,” and the darkness it illuminates can be interpreted in several ways. The Gospel of John figures large in Bob’s stream of thought, as does the lurking presence of Carl Jung and his life’s work that turned on its head the way psychologists – and everyone else – are apt to see the world. This isn’t a book for the faint of heart. Greek (and older) symbolism gets sorted out with everything else in a read such as I’ve never encountered. The “feminine” – the eternal feminine – as it relates to the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth is another of Bob’s ideas which, it turns out, he pretty much proves to be like it was. Wow! If the “right” people read it, this book could become a bombshell.

— Alec Nesbitt, Larkspur, CO