1st Edition

Exile, Identity, and Reconstructing Belonging in the Gospel of Mark

By Allan E.C. Wright Copyright 2026
192 Pages
by Routledge

192 Pages
by Routledge

This volume adds to the scholarly interpretive discourses surrounding the Gospel of Mark and argues that the author of Mark attempts to re-construct social identity after the Second Temple’s demise. After the destruction of the Temple, Mark questioned his self-identity through sentiments of social alienation and expressed these emotions through lamenting lost socio-cultural institutions,... Read more

Introduction

1. Mark’s Social Setting and Circumstances

2. Nation, Identity, Place, and Exile

3. Alienation, Dislocation, and Disillusionment in the Gospel of Mark

4. Rectification of Exile through Reconstructing Socio-Cultural Institution

Conclusion

Biography

Allan E.C. Wright is an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of “Better to Reign in Hell, Than Serve in Heaven:” Satan’s Metamorphosis From a Heavenly Council Member to the Ruler of Pandaemonium.

"Wright’s makes a compelling and much-needed intervention in Markan studies. Against the prevailing consensus, Wright proposes that we rethink the Gospel’s setting and social world: the Markan Jesus does not inhabit a realistic world of the 30s CE, nor does Mark even depict his own social world. Instead, Wright encourages us to think of Mark’s world as one caught up in the complex and symbolically-charged relations of the post-War period.  Mark emerges as a creative and sophisticated text, challenging its first readers to ponder their new situation and confront their own feelings of alienation with its own novel interpretations of Jesus’ life." - Christopher B. Zeichmann, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada