Braun/Jesus and Addiction, 5. Christian Origins and the Gospel of Mark

The dominant default in the academic that studies the formation and history of emergent Christianity is the assumption of the mystique of its first-century origins—even if those studies are, ostensibly, non-theological. Christianity’s own myth of origins has therefore become the universal scholarly starting point in understanding Christian beginnings. This chapter uses one literary example, the Gospel of Mark, to see if the text can bear the burden of the Christian myth of origin that is often placed upon it.