I’m doing an independent study on Mark’s Christology right now with Dr. Scott Swain. Dr. Swain is Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando. His forthcoming book, co-authored with Andreas Kostenberger, is in the NSBT series, and is titled The Trinity and the Gospel of John. It is a phenominal read that dives head first into trinitarian exegetical and theological issues in John. Anyway, I hope to pursue for my Ph.D. studies a focus on Mark’s Christology in the next few years, so I am working through some material this semester toward that end. I’m reading through several books for this study:
Richard Bauckham, God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the NT, 1999.
Simon J. Gathercole, The Pre-Existent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 2006
Morna Hooker, The Son of Man, 1967
Jack Dean Kingsbury, The Christology of Mark’s Gospel, 1983
Joel Marcus, The Way of the Lord: Christological Exegesis of the Old Testament in the Gospel of Mark, 1992
Rikki Watts, Isaiah’s New Exodus in the Gospel of Mark, 1997
Various journals
As many of you probably know, the synoptic gospels are typically regarded as having “low” Christologies – that is, views of Christ that are less theologically developed than those of, say, John, The Book of Hebrews, and Paul. Bauckham, however, proposes in God Crucified that the “highest Christology in the NT is the earliest Christology,” a radical claim indeed. Even before any of the NT was written, the earliest Christian communities included Jesus in the “Divine Identity” (more on that later). I am working through these various monographs, journals, commentaries and the gospel itself, seeking to verify Bauckham’s thesis, and discover how Mark uniquely portrays the person of Christ. I’ll be posting reviews of these books and my thoughts as I work through the gospel.
