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gmark - Re: Mack- since you asked.

gmark AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: Steve Black <sdblack AT telus.net>
  • To: "Kata Markon" <gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Mack- since you asked.
  • Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:50:11 -0700


I was going to withhold my opinion on Burton Mack's "The Myth of Innocence", but
since I've been prodded I figure I'll throw my 2 cents in.

The book really has two very different kinds of arguments to it: a particular
reading of Mark, and an ideological critique based on and informed by that
reading. I have very different reactions to each kind of argument, although I
am not overwhelmed by either.

i) If one buys into his method of reading Mark (i.e. reconstruct the sources
behind the text, posit the means by which he edited these hypothetical sources,
and then use that framework to interpret the text), then one would find his
analysis compelling. I, myself, don't place much stock in reconstructed sources
and do not find the "Jesus was a cynic" argument terribly compelling. [snip]

I read Mack as if it were a good yarn. He is very imaginative and kind of fun. His weakness is that he doesn't recognize his fiction as fiction which is a weakness indeed. But even so - he tells a good tale...

ii) I must say, however, that the "myth of innocence" business, which gives the
book its title, is extremely problematic. There are, in fact, so many problems
with the way that he constructs his argument that it is almost hard to know
where to begin. (I wish there were some other way to say this, some way that
was somewhat appreciative while remaining critical- but there simply isn't). [snip]

I enjoyed your critique of Mack here. I think Mack's strength is in his biblical work and that when he wanders far from this he loses plausibility.

--
Steve Black
Vancouver School of Theology
Vancouver, BC
---

Strangers stopping strangers just to shake their hand...

-Robert Hunter From SCARLET BEGONIAS




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