Caleb Cooke completed a 10-week internship as research assistant to Professor Chris Keith (St. Mary’s University). He gained firsthand experience in the scholarly process and studied the Gospel of John in great detail.
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Dear Caleb,
This is terrific! I admit, I have never really looked for the theological lens of Mark before, but now that I read your poster I most certainly will. Your discussion of the historicity of John I think is very important—the fact that it provides a slightly different take on the historical sequence of the Gospel events makes it valuable, not easily dismissible. Thank you for an exciting poster!
Sincerely,
Danny Cordray
Thanks, Danny.
Your response touches on a point I find critical for an understanding of the Gospels: each of these writings are “takes” on the historical sequence. The possibility that these events are conserved in the exact order they occurred is highly unlikely; rather, it is more likely that stories about Jesus (“pericopes”) travelled around through the medium of oral tradition and underwent drastic change before they met the authors of the Gospels (who were second-generation Christians). Only recently has the role of the editor/author (i.e. “John the Evangelist”) come under criticism by New Testament scholars through the practice of composition and redactional criticism. It is important to see the author of the Gospel of John as an active agent in writing his Gospel; in short, the writing of the Gospels was not just a mindless act.
Dear Caleb,
This is terrific! I admit, I have never really looked for the theological lens of Mark before, but now that I read your poster I most certainly will. Your discussion of the historicity of John I think is very important—the fact that it provides a slightly different take on the historical sequence of the Gospel events makes it valuable, not easily dismissible. Thank you for your exciting poster!
Sincerely,
Danny Cordray
Dear Caleb,
I never realized how a field that has already been analyzed in depth, such as New Testament study, could still be changing and developing. I have always found the relationships between the different books of the Gospel to be intriguing. Its intriguing to think about the different possible lenses that they wrote through and the different lenses that people read through.
Sincerely,
Connor Gregg
Thanks, Connor.
While the study of the New Testament has been around since its writing (in theologians like St. Augustine or Justin Martyr), only relatively recently (18th century) have historical-critical approaches to the been applied to the New Testament. During modern times, this is seen as standard historical procedure: taking the sources we have and drawing conclusions off of the evidence in front of us. But, at the time of its inception, studying the Bible in a critical manner was a truly scandalous idea that, as of today, still stirs up commotion in some circles.
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