The Gospel of Mark in Context

“Social-scientific interpretation made us aware of the cultural embeddedness of language, persons, and events. . . . Context, Santiago Guijarro illustrates in this collection of studies, is a social context, and the social sciences provide the tools for unlocking that context. A variety of aspects of Mark’s Gospel are illuminated in this book by means of social-scientific tools. This is a truly contextual interpretation of Mark’s gospel.”


—Pieter F. Craffert, University of South Africa





“One of the great pleasures of reading Santiago Guijarro’s work is its consistent transparency. . . . The result is to find oneself once more believing in the possibility of an honest conversation about the biblical text. In his hands, a ‘social-scientific reading’ becomes not the sterile application of a foregone conclusion but the occasion for meeting for the first time the embodied and socially embedded human beings both depicted in and responsible for the First Gospel.”


—Leif E. Vaage, Emmanuel College of Victoria University, University of Toronto, emeritus





“Guijarro’s explorations of the Gospel of Mark and its world provide an insightful and trustworthy guide to the cultural and social nuances of Mark’s surprising, complex, and uniquely consoling narrative for contemporary readers.”


—Séamus O’Connell, Pontifical University,  Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth (Ireland)





“Guijarro’s contextual social-scientific studies on Mark offer a coherent quest for the meaning of Mark in its original setting. Amazing how these new insights on major themes like Jesus’ baptism, the exorcisms and healings, the conflict stories, the anointing in Bethany, the temple, and the passion narrative not only throw the reader into the past but open new perspectives on the meaning of Mark’s story today.”


—Geert Van Oyen, Catholic University of Louvain