| dc.description.abstract | This study uses a cognitive theory of metaphor as the lens through which to examine a set of Johannine metaphors never scrutinized together before: expressions of fullness, wholeness, abundance, and completion.^Using principles emerging from recent interaction among the fields of literary and linguistic theory, philosophy, and neuroscience, the dissertation adopts the tenets of cognitive linguistics that a) meaning is constructed and perspectival; b) language is world-building; c) conceptual metaphors are not linguistic phenomena but concepts arising from and shaped by sensorimotor experiences of the body and by social/cultural experience; d) conceptual metaphors are projections/instantiations of gestalt image schemas (such as balance, container, path) which rest on pre-conceptual, constant, usually unnoticed encounters of human bodies with the physical world; e) conceptual metaphors operate by cross-domain mappings from a source to a target domain; and f) conceptual metaphors are often invisibly and imaginatively blended to achieve compression and insight.^Rejecting a mind/body dichotomy, this dissertation applies the above cognitive linguistic and conceptual metaphor principles to world-constructing expressions of fullness and abundance in the Fourth Gospel, with an emphasis of the schema of CONTAINER, as reflected in the prologue and epilogue, the water-into-wine miracle at Cana, the offering of living water to the woman at Jacobs well, the healing at the pool of Beth-zatha, the multiplication of loaves and fishes and bread of life discourse, the promise of abundant pasture from the Good Shepherd, and the promise of much fruit to connected branches.^The dissertations contributions are 1) the identification of abundance as a major theme of Johns gospel; 2) the assertion that metaphoric expressions of and about Johns Jesus reveal a great deal about God; 3) an analysis of Johns metaphors of abundance as an interrelated constellation of expressions which involve repetition, anticipation, priming, mirror images, context and intertexts to create a composite picture of the abundant life; 4) a demonstration of the pervasive Johannine use of CONTAINER to foster a gestalt-like understanding of fullness, wholeness, and boundless generosity in the gifts of God, allowing believers to create and inhabit a world full of life. | |
