Praxis as a Criterion of the Truth in John's Gospel (3, 19-21)

Abstract

The article analyzes the problem of the truth in John's Gospel. The author proposes the thesis that in the background of John's statement there is the `classical conception of the truth', that is the correspondence one. However, the range of this correspondence is broadened and encloses the existential relation. The first and fundamental pole of this relation of truthfulness is the ethos stated in the logos of John 3,14ff. The second pole of the relation is the catechumen. His existential entrance into the logos is the condition of being in the truth. John's being in the truth is not an unattainable ideal but a state achieved in the process of initiation as soon as the stage of catechumenate. This `being in' is of a different kind than moralistic, of a different category than pantheistic, and of a different type than Gnostic. We are dealing here with with sort of existential truth that reduces the problem of man to the deepest layer of being where man existing in separation from God, that is on the plane of existential falsehood, has an opportunity of being in the truth, on condition that he will submit to the process of `reanimation'. This is a process of initiation leading to existential salvation.