Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Note on Abbreviations
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Nicholas of Lyra and the Narrative of John's Gospel
The Gospel's Visionary Basis
The Narrative Quality of the Gospels
John's Visionary Authority
Methods
Gospel Structure and Literal Meaning
Circumstances: the Wedding at Cana
Psychology and the Literal: the Samaritan Woman
Narrative Control and History
The Logic of Narrative Incident: the Woman Taken in Adultery
Miracles and Divine Rhetoric: Lazarus
Structure, History, and the Teaching Purpose of Christ: the Pool at Bethesda
Incarnate Meaning and the Legend of the Cross
The Meaning of Christ's Weakness
Chapter Three: The Cursor Mundi, Narrative and Sacred History
Religious Purpose and Esthetic Pleasure
Narrative and the History of the Universe
Peter Comestor, Eden, and the Tree of Life
The Vision of the Wands
Allegories
The Legend of the Cross
The Infancy Miracles and the Harshness of the Visible Presence
The Ministry of Christ, the Gospel of John, and Herman of Valenciennes
The Passion and Self-Revelation
Judas and the Prophesying Chicken
Chapter Four: The Four Daughters of God, the Last Judgment, and the Scope of the Real
The Last Judgment and Literalism
The Four Daughters of God and Wisdom Literature
The Meditationes Vitae Christi and Apocrypha
The English Mystery Cycles and the Gospel of John
The Towneley Last Judgment
The Mixed Mode of Piers Plowman
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Mark Hazard