St John's Gospel: A self-directed retreat provides suitable reading material for people who, through necessity or personal preference, plan to make a retreat without the assistance of a preacher or director. This material focuses each day, in a definite sequence, on one or more of the characters in the Fourth Gospel. It includes detailed commentaries on the relevant sections of the biblical text and complementary guidelines for prayer. The recommended approach brings together three mutually supportive ways of reading scripture: academically as an object of study, contemplatively as a resource for prayer, and contextually as a source of moral guidance and prophetic judgment. Intended for a six-day retreat, the book could be used for occasional days of recollection.