A Constellation of Divine Presence and Absence in John

This chapter introduces the conceptual metaphor of recognizing the shape of a constellation among a group of stars that will orient Part Two of the study. The second half of this study employs that conceptual metaphor to argue that, despite a common scholarly preoccupation with a “Johannine temple motif”, John’s attention to the temple is actually part of a larger Johannine focus on divine presence and absence.