Mark's Gospel: Awakening the Voice Within

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review and an instructor
of Liturgy, Anglican Studies Program, Regent College, Vancouver.

This is a well-organized book. Mark’s gospel is divided into 51
passages, and each is treated in a short chapter that ends with two
questions to ponder. At the start of each chapter, the author’s choice
of the key verses in the passage are reproduced from the New Revised
Standard Version.

Page approaches Mark “as a powerful devotional document” and is
influenced by the mystical tradition within Christianity. This leads to
a strong pietist voice in the book. But Page’s pietism seems slanted
toward the self-realization of contemporary popular psychology. While
Page may attempt to defend this as part of the ancient Christian
meditative tradition of inner reflection leading to an encounter with
the divine, to the reader it comes across as a tract on
self-improvement, often because of the questions at the end of his
chapters (e.g., “What are the impediments in my life that cause me to
respond to life with something less than true humanness?”). A better
strategy may have been to provide one Christocentric and one
self-reflective question per chapter.

The surprise in this book is Page’s treatment of the story of
Christ’s passion and resurrection. Here his pietism takes the power,
passion, and awe out of the narrative. The moments that have inspired
moving works of art cause the author to pose a series of questions such
as “Can I accept and embrace the disappointments in my life?” It is
hard to believe that Mark saw the crucifixion in such self-centred
terms. Rather, to Mark this was the pivotal moment in history, the
moment when the purposes of God triumphed in the most unexpected manner
possible. Page’s final chapters seem a betrayal of Mark’s faith and
literary purpose.