David F. Ford - The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary

The account given in the epilogue of the writing of this commentary over a twenty-year period includes many of those to whom I am most indebted: my wife, Deborah Ford; her father, Daniel Hardy; Micheal OSiadhail; Peter Ochs; Frances Young; Hans Frei; Sarah Snyder; Giles Waller; Simeon Zahl; Frances Clemson; Paul Nimmo; Rachel Muers; Michael Volland; Jean Vanier; Justin Welby; Peter McDonald; Jonathan Aitken; Maria Dakake; Richard Hays; Richard Bauckham; Margaret Daly-Denton; Susan Hylen; Dorothy Lee; Vittorio Montemaggi; Loraine Gelsthorpe; and Ian Randall.

The epilogue also names some of the groups and institutional settings that have been important, and to which I am very grateful: the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, where I was teaching during fifteen of the twenty years, and where the final year undergraduate course on the Gospel of John and a masters course in theology that included study of John were especially helpful; the Lyns House community in Cambridge; those who responded to eight Bampton Lectures on John at the University of Oxford; the symposium on John sponsored by the McDonald Agape Foundation; the students who took a course on John in Candler School of Divinity, Emory University; the Community of St. Anselm at Lambeth Palace; a great many diocesan, clergy, and lay conferences of the Church of England and other churches; the Rose Castle Foundation; and the multifaith Scriptural Reasoning community.

Elsewhere in the commentary other significant companions on the journey are noted: Tom Greggs, Jeremy Begbie, Richard Chartres, Amy Plantinga Pauw, Ashley Cocksworth, Paul Murray, Lesslie Newbigin, Andrew Lincoln, Trond Dokka, Kate Sonderegger, Susannah Ticciati, Judith Lieu, Donald MacKinnon, Peter Carnley, and Mike Higton.

But these are not all! There are other communities and groups significantly related to my thinking about John: three church congregations in Cambridge in which my wife, Deborah, has successively served as a priestSt. Benets, St. James Wulfstan Way, and now St. Andrews Cherry Hintonand in which I have preached and taught on John; the chaplaincy team at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, in which Deborah also serves, and the wider network of healthcare chaplains in the United Kingdom; the Theological Retreat Group hosted by Justin Welby in Canterbury; the Cambridge Muslim College; Minzu University in Beijing; Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya in Haridwar; the Society of St. Francis; the Monastery of St. Barnabas the Encourager in Wales; St. Marys Abbey West Malling; two weeklong gatherings with prisoners in Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola) initiated by Peter Kang; four gatherings of the primates of the Anglican Communion, 20002003; the Council of Christians and Jews theology project led by Tony Bayfield; LArche UK and the LArche International Federation; the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Muscat, Oman; Kalam Research and Media; Faith in Leadership; and the Elijah Interfaith Institute in Jerusalem.

Then there are the many others with whom I have had encounters and relationships that have helped in diverse ways to shape this commentary. Even the long list to come is just a representative sample, and it covers only the two decades of the writing. It was tempting to try to shorten it or to limit it to those still living, but at every name gratitude took over. So my thanks to each of you: Anna Abram; Nick Adams; Donald Allchin; Abdullah Al-Salmi; Mother Anne; Brother Anselm, SSF; Fergus and Frank Armstrong; Michael Barnes, SJ; Tony Bayfield; Barbara Bennett; Georgette Bennett; Hanoch Ben-Pazi; You Bin; Dave Bookless; James Broad; Rob and Joanna Brown; John Casson; Frank Clooney, SJ; David Clough; Chris Cocksworth; Drew Collins; Ken Costa; Dick and Lena Curtis; Tim Dakin; Ellen Davis; Lejla Demiri; Beth Dodd; Ben Evans; Miriam Feldmann-Kaye; Jennifer and Sean Fields; Jim Fodor; Alan Ford; Annie Ford; Phyllis Ford; Nicolas and Virginie Fournier; Jason Fout; Ben Fulford; Joseph Galgalo; James and Judith Gardom; Sister Gemma, CJ; Nigel Genders; Julie Gittoes; Rachael Gledhill; Paula Gooder; Alon and Thrse Goshen-Gottstein; Thomas Graff; Matthias Grebe; Heather Greggs; Robin Griffith-Jones; Isabelle Hamley; Perrin Hardy; Annie and Alan Hargrave; Richard Harman; Sarah Hills; Cameron Howes; Yang Huilin; Peter and Catherine Ievins; Denise Inge; Carole Irwin; Tim Jenkins; Anderson Jeremiah; Greg Jones; Emily Kempson; Steve Kepnes; Karen Kilby; Daniel King; Graham Kings; Basit Koshul; Dominic Krautter; Catriona Laing; Patrick Leckie; Robbie Leigh; Doug Leonard; Natan Levy; Miriam Lorie; John and Wenna Marks; Ed Marques; Victoria Mason; Georgia and Owen May; Edward McCabe; Ian McFarland; Christine McGrievy; Patrick McKearney; Dominic McMullen; William McVey; Suzie Millar; Walter Moberly; Aref Nayed; Rachel Noel; Madeleine OCallaghan; Amiel Osmaston; Chinmay Pandiya; Theresia Paquet; Jean-Christophe Pascal; Janette Pearson; Antti Pentekainen; Chase Pepper; Stephen Plant; Leonard Polonsky; Philip Powell; Ben Quash; Alex Radford; Krish Raval; Chlo Reddaway; Kavin Rowe; Miikka Ruokanen; William Salomon; Brother Sam, SSF; Christoph Schwbel; Bryan and Dorothy Scrivener; Greg Seach; Jutta and Martin Seeley; Hugh Shilson Thomas; Sarah Simpson; Nicola Slee; Daniel Smith; John Snyder; Janet Soskice; Gillian Spence; John Swinton; Nadiya Takolia; Lindsey Taylor-Gutharz; Jonathan Teubner; Gabby Thomas; Angela Tilby; Margie Tolstoy; Graham Tomlin; Iain Torrance; Miroslav Volf; Karin Voth-Harman; Jim Walters; Daniel Weiss; Caroline Welby; Jo and Sam Wells; Christina Weltz; Jerry White; Andy Wolfe; Alison Wood; John Wood; Alexandra Wright; Tom Wright; Jon and Sophie Young; Peter Young; Bonnie Zahl; and Laurie Zoloth.