A daring and cutting-edge approach to the Gospel of Mark for a new generation of politically interested readers. By competently applying Marxist literary criticism to three pivotal areas of conflict or resistance in Mark—sabbath, imperial violence, and communities of resistance—Niall McKay resituates the Markan text as a product of ideological struggle, and detects within its pages utopian possibilities for liberation as well. Essential stuff.

Robert Myles, Wollaston Theological College and University of Divinity

The use of apartheid South Africa as the historical locus of McKay’s interrogation of the political impact of biblical interpretation is an inspired choice. Allowing the South African context to shape his methodological approach, McKay constructs what he refers to as a flexible hermeneutic, forging a form of Marxist literary materialism with which to bring Markan biblical texts into a dialectical dialogue with the South African post-colony. In so doing McKay demonstrates the capacity of his biblical hermeneutic to engage with this and other contexts of oppression, partially constituted by the Bible, and within which biblical interpretation is a site of struggle. In McKay’s words, 'Insofar as there are communities which discern guidance and liberative inspiration from the Bible, how can we read to understand the contours of oppression, resistant action and liberative community in the name of a re-imagined material future?' The contemporary post-apartheid South African context is one such context where this question resonates and where McKay’s book offers hope.

Gerald West, University of KwaZulu-Natal