John: The Gospel of Encounter

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John: The Gospel of Encounter

March 10, 2026

56 min

David Ford joins Mark Labberton to explore why the Gospel of John still feels inexhaustible—cosmic, intimate, and urgently relevant in a fractured age. Ford has spent over two decades inside this text and finds it as generative as ever.

“Any of us can begin this quiet revolution in our own corner of things.”

Together they discuss the prologue as a frame for all reality, John 17 as midrash on the Lord’s Prayer, the theology of greatness, and Christian unity as gift before task. They ask how rereading John forms resilient communities of truth, love, and daring friendship.

HOST
Mark Labberton
Mark Labberton hosts the Conversing podcast and is the Clifford L. Penner Presidential Chair Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Preaching at Fuller Seminary.
GUEST
David Ford
David F. Ford OBE is Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Cambridge and a Fellow of Selwyn College.

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John: The Gospel of Encounter

John: The Gospel of Encounter

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