Behold, My Mother and My Brethren!

The Beginning of the Gospel and Becoming a Christian in (Post) Christendom: Volume I—Mark 1:1 to 4:41

Bryan M. Christman

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781666799910
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

In this Kierkegaardian reading of Mark's Gospel two of the most creative and passionate witnesses of Christ's gospel are brought together to mutually inform its superlative wonder. Both writers winsomely revealed the nature of human existence in sin, and the new life Jesus lived and made possible for all, as the paradoxical "God-man." They highlighted "the single individual" against the frenzied crowd "in untruth"--driven by despair whether conscious or unconscious--and vulnerable to enticing publicity and deceptive propaganda. The entrenched societal systems unjustly determined for time and eternity who God favored or disfavored. In dramatic contrast, Mark and Kierkegaard both elucidated God's "good news" calling forth the highest and "happy passion" of faith capable of creating a new family unconstrained by the status quo of the established order's old wineskin. In short, through the gospel they powerfully challenged "the system, " whether modern "Christendom" or its first-century equivalent and did so by "merely" following Jesus "out over 70, 000 fathoms, " weathering demonic storms and overcoming dehumanizing societal bureaucracies set against them and humanity at large. This Kierkegaardian reading of Mark reveals two kindred spirits, after Christ's spirit, demonstrating the redemptive love of God for all humanity, centered in Christ.