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Title: An Essential Invitation to Reading Mark
Review: Don Juel's book on the Gospel of Mark will be very helpful to those reading and preaching Mark in this Year B. Juel's work serves both as an introduction to reading the New Testament and a companion to viewing the Gospel of Mark as a self-contained narrative. What I enjoyed most about the work was the way that Juel both explained the narrative strategies of the evangelist and suggested greater theological possibilities. The best example of this is his chapter on "The Death of Jesus and the Will of God" that is both lucid and spellbinding. Juel's overall thesis that Mark defies our desire to have neat theological and pious interpretations of scripture has filled me with a new understanding and appreciation of the gospel. (By "gospel" I mean both the evangelist Mark's work, and the good news of the Holy Gospel itself). If you want to go deeper in this under-rated and enjoyable book of the Bible you have no better guide than this book.
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