Niverville resident Dr. Joshua Coutts has published his first book, The Divine Name in the Gospel of John.
Previously lecturing at Regent College and Edinburgh Theological Seminar, Dr. Coutts is currently in his first year at Providence College Theological Seminary, where he is the Associate Professor of the New Testament. He currently has a class focused on the Gospel of John.
The book explores the Gospel of John in the New Testament, and how the early Christians wrestled with how to make sense of Jesus based on their experience of Jesus, as well as the social pressures they were facing.
“Their devotion to Jesus cost them socially, yet they didn’t feel free to abandon Jesus or scripture,” he explains. “So John pulls those two convictions together in his Gospel—their devotion for Jesus and their reverence for scripture.”
The book initially began as research during his four-year doctorate, but after it was complete Dr. Coutts found that the information could be relevant to other scholars, and thus decided to publish his works into a book.
“It’s certainly more upstream than what we are currently seeing in popular culture,” he says. “It will likely be something you would see in academic libraries used by scholars, or with those like pastors that use Bible commentaries [to produce sermons].”
While Coutts admits that the exploration of New Testament studies, particularly as it pertains to his book, can be a niche, he also explains that its findings are an interesting read for others wanting to explore deeper elements of the New Testament.
“There is a broad resonance… many parallel issues in our current culture,” he explains of how the book can be applied to modern society. “There are the questions of how you make sense of God with the changing social pressures. We have certain convictions, but previous experiences or traumas can change our impression of the universe, so how do we make sense of our reality and our experience of Jesus within that?”
