John: The Gospel of Encounter, with David Ford

David Ford joins Mark Labberton to explore why the Gospel of John still feels inexhaustible—cosmic, intimate, and urgently relevant in a fractured age. Ford has spent over two decades inside this text and finds it as generative as ever.

"Any of us can begin this quiet revolution in our own corner of things."

Together they reflect on John as a gospel of encounter, trust, and lifelong rereading.

Together they discuss the prologue as a frame for all reality, John 17 as midrash on the Lord's Prayer, the theology of greatness, and Christian unity as gift before task. Together they ask how rereading John forms resilient communities of truth, love, and daring friendship.

Episode Highlights

"You can reread and reread and reread, and the levels go on deepening and deepening that it never comes to an end."

"The meeting with God in John is through trusting Jesus."

"Every time we read this as we are now, we are in the presence of the one we are talking about."

"Unity, this unity is a gift before it's a task."

"We are a centered set, not a bounded set. It's not the boundaries that define us, it's the center."

About David Ford

David F. Ford OBE is Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Cambridge and a Fellow of Selwyn College. He founded the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, co-founded scriptural reasoning, and co-chairs the Rose Castle Foundation. His books include The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary, Theology: A Very Short Introduction, and Meeting God in John. Learn more and follow at https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/directory/david-ford

(Sources: Cambridge Faculty of Divinity; Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton)

Helpful Links and Resources

Meeting God in John: https://spckpublishing.co.uk/meeting-god-in-john

The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary: https://bakeracademic.com/products/9781540964083_the-gospel-of-john

Theology: A Very Short Introduction: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/theology-9780199679973

The Five Quintets, Micheal O'Siadhail: https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481307093/the-five-quintets/

Rose Castle Foundation: https://www.rosecastlefoundation.org/home

Show Notes

• Shared mentor Steven Sykes; Ford later succeeded him at Cambridge
• Reading the prologue aloud (John 1:1–18, NRSV)
• Light, life, word—simple Greek, inexhaustible depth
• "The levels go on deepening and deepening that it never comes to an end."
• Super abundance
• A theological ecosystem—for beginners and lifelong readers
• Meeting God, not merely studying John
• Thomas's "My Lord and my God"—the climactic theological statement
• Believing as trusting
• "We are in the presence of the one we are talking about."
• Exquisite and approachable
• The word as intercultural headline
• Five moods of faith: indicative, imperative, interrogative, optative, subjunctive
• Jesus's first words: "What are you looking for?"
• Read John every 90 days, like the Psalms
• 50-year friendship with poet Micheal O'Siadhail; The Five Quintets as improvisation on the Prologue
• Reading John 17 with Richard Hays and Richard Bauckham—21 sessions, Cambridge, 2009
• John 17 as midrash on the Lord's Prayer
• "Unity is a gift before it's a task."
• The word "world" appears 16 times in John 17
• Rose Castle Foundation: scriptural reasoning across divides
• Paul Cefalu's Johannine Renaissance—tumultuous eras turn to John
• Theology of greatness: foot washing versus the emperor's claim
• Signs of abundant life—Cana, feeding of the five thousand
• Daring friendships: crossing barriers as Jesus did
• "Any of us can begin this quiet revolution in our own corner of things."

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Production Credits

Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary.