Kata Markon

[Steve Black <sdblack AT telus.net>]

> 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