(DOWNLOAD) "Precious, Inevitable Scandal: Theology of the Cross in Mark (Religious Studies)" by Currents in Theology and Mission " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Precious, Inevitable Scandal: Theology of the Cross in Mark (Religious Studies)
- Author : Currents in Theology and Mission
- Release Date : January 01, 2005
- Genre: Politics & Current Events,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 305 KB
Description
Of the four canonical narratives we call "gospels," only Mark identifies itself as "good news," or, more accurately, "the beginning of the good news." Ironically, the story of Jesus that Mark tells proceeds more like a rapid descent into tragedy. Especially to those who read or hear the gospels for the first time, Mark's account must seem a message of bad news rather than good when measured against the other three. True, the hero dies in all four, but in the other three he reappears long enough to enjoy a few moments of vindication and to offer both assurance and direction to his tentatively faithful followers. As Mark's tale closes, the women at the empty tomb find their beloved Jesus as absent from them as God had seemed from Jesus himself on that terrible afternoon two days earlier. "You will see him, just as he told you," the young messenger at the tomb declares (16:7), sounding suspiciously like the voice that promises to the battered faithful such things as "Those who love me, I will deliver.... I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation" (Ps 91:14-16). In the shadow of the cross, how does anybody believe either promise? With what shreds of hope should the frightened women at the tomb proceed to Galilee?