This essay examines how the spirit influences truth in John's Gospel, suggesting a nondualistic understanding among diverse views of religious truth.
precis: In ecumenical and comparative theology, there is a tendency to focus on definitions and analysis of different positions on religious truth. Diverse views of truth then seem mutually exclusive, often centering on christological statements and ignoring the role of the Spirit. Some see the Gospel of John as supporting an exclusive truth, and they use John’s dualism to reinforce rivalry for truth. This essay offers a more affective and nondualistic model of truth, focusing on the action of the Spirit in the conversion of affectivity more than the role of the Word in propositions of belief. Through an exploration of the Spirit of truth in John 3 and 4 using a Girardian lens, it argues that the Spirit leads to a nondualistic level of truth.
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Susan McElcheran (2025) studied this question.
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