This is a past event
The 2015 Open Lecture of the Theological Club will be given by Dr Helen Bond of New College, Edinburgh.
Helen Bond is Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Director of the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. She is interested in the society and culture of Judaea in the Roman period and the emergence of the movement we now call Christianity. She has written books on Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, and the historical Jesus and is currently writing on Mark’s passion narrative. She has contributed to a number of TV documentaries, both as a ‘talking head’ and a historical consultant
Dr Bond will speak on Reading Mark’s Gospel as an Ancient Biography.
An emerging scholarly consensus regards the gospels as ancient biographies, or bioi. But what difference does this make to the way that we read Mark’s gospel in particular? In this lecture I shall argue that the realisation that Mark wrote a biography makes a huge different to the way we interpret his work: that it explains the structure of the gospel, that it affects his ethics and his presentation of Jesus as a model to follow, that it leaves its mark on other characters within the text, and (perhaps most crucially) it helps us to see how Mark’s presentation of Jesus’ suffering and death engages with a persecuted audience, and encourages them towards solidarity and a sense of identity as suffering followers.
- Venue
- University Chaplaincy Centre