Doubting Thomas
by Glenn W. Most /
2007 / English / PDF
5.8 MB Download
About the disciple known as Doubting Thomas, everyone knows at
least this much: he stuck his finger into the risen Jesus'
wounds. Or did he? A fresh look at the Gospel of John reveals how
little we may really understand about this most perplexing of
biblical figures, and how much we might learn from the strange
twists and turns Thomas's story has taken over time.
About the disciple known as Doubting Thomas, everyone knows at
least this much: he stuck his finger into the risen Jesus'
wounds. Or did he? A fresh look at the Gospel of John reveals how
little we may really understand about this most perplexing of
biblical figures, and how much we might learn from the strange
twists and turns Thomas's story has taken over time.
From the New Testament, Glenn W. Most traces Thomas's
permutations through the centuries: as Gnostic saint, missionary
to India, paragon of Christian orthodoxy, hero of skepticism, and
negative example of doubt, blasphemy, stupidity, and violence.
Rife with paradoxes and tensions, these creative transformations
at the hands of storytellers, theologians, and artists tell us a
great deal about the complex relations between texts and their
interpretations--and about faith, love, personal identity, the
body, and twins, among other matters.
From the New Testament, Glenn W. Most traces Thomas's
permutations through the centuries: as Gnostic saint, missionary
to India, paragon of Christian orthodoxy, hero of skepticism, and
negative example of doubt, blasphemy, stupidity, and violence.
Rife with paradoxes and tensions, these creative transformations
at the hands of storytellers, theologians, and artists tell us a
great deal about the complex relations between texts and their
interpretations--and about faith, love, personal identity, the
body, and twins, among other matters.Doubting Thomas
Doubting Thomas begins with a close reading of chapter 20
of the Gospel of John, set against the conclusions of the other
Gospels, and ends with a detailed analysis of the painting of
this subject by Caravaggio, setting it within the pictorial
traditions of late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the
Renaissance. Along the way, Most considers narrative reactions to
John's account by storytellers of various religious persuasions,
and Christian theologians' interpretations of John 20 from the
second century ad until the Counter-Reformation. His work shows
how Thomas's story, in its many guises, touches upon central
questions of religion, philosophy, hermeneutics, and, not least,
life.
begins with a close reading of chapter 20
of the Gospel of John, set against the conclusions of the other
Gospels, and ends with a detailed analysis of the painting of
this subject by Caravaggio, setting it within the pictorial
traditions of late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the
Renaissance. Along the way, Most considers narrative reactions to
John's account by storytellers of various religious persuasions,
and Christian theologians' interpretations of John 20 from the
second century ad until the Counter-Reformation. His work shows
how Thomas's story, in its many guises, touches upon central
questions of religion, philosophy, hermeneutics, and, not least,
life.
