The exegete and the theologian: Is collaboration possible?

This article ponders the possibility of collaboration between the exegete and the theologian. In reflecting on a particular instance of collaboration focused on the Gospel of John, it suggests a judicious application of Lonergans four dimensions of meaning will be a useful tool in expressing the cognitive (objective reality), constitutive (identityforming), communicative (community forming), and effective (worldforming) bearing of the Biblical text. My specialisation, along with an interest in interdisciplinary studies, is what is unsatisfactorily termed systematic theology. Some years ago, I collaborated with the distinguished Johannine scholar, Francis J. Moloney, SDB, in producing the book, Experiencing of God in the Gospel of John.1 These methodological reflections owe much to the experience of collaboration.