The Landscape of the Gospels: A Deeper Meaning by Donald Senior

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Landscape of the Gospels: A Deeper Meaning by Donald Senior Michael Trainor donald senior, The Landscape of the Gospels: A Deeper Meaning (Biblical Studies from the Catholic Biblical Association of America 3; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2021). Pp. vii + 135. Paper $19.95. Donald Senior writes in his usual clear style a book that those who have studied (or would like to study) the Gospels and have traveled to the Holy Land will find enjoyable, summary, and insightful. While the focus, as suggested in the book's subtitle, is the landscape, what S. captures is the way the landscape of Palestine/Israel is integral to history and to an appreciation of the Gospels, which presume the landscape. For those who have traveled to the Holy Land, walking the landscape of the Gospel narratives deepens their understanding and, as S. indicates, in time this grows into a spiritual connection. This is the "spiritual landscape" (p. 3) that emerges as part of the biblical interpretation. Highlighting this is the book's goal (p. 21) as the landscape becomes more than the physical and geographical [End Page 336] backdrop for the Gospel narratives. It becomes a metaphor in which the Gospel reader both "lands" and "scopes" what is essential. This land has been constant in Israel's history, is the context for Jesus's ministry, and provides the context for each of the Gospel writers. "And it is evident," writes S., "that the Gospels do not simply record Jesus's sayings and describe his actions, but have set their narrative in a varied landscape, a landscape that in many instances is drenched in a long history of biblical events preceding the time of Jesus and carrying meaning from those past events" (p. 4). In the book's Introduction, S. introduces the guiding aim of his writing, his exploration of the "spiritual landscape." He then provides an overview of the physical geography that finds its echo in the Gospels: the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan Valley, Samaria, the desert, Judea, and Jerusalem. A brief note on the climate and rainfall concludes this overview. S. then turns his attention to the landscape of each of the Gospels (including Acts) in a predictable order: Mark, Matthew, Luke-Acts, and John. These chapters do two things. They scope the spiritual terrain defined by each Gospel and summarize the narrative terrain and key themes of each. Chapter 1 deals with Mark's landscape. The unfolding of Mark's narrative also reveals a landscape in successive fashion: the Judean wilderness, Galilee, the movement from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jerusalem and its temple, and, finally, the return to Galilee as indicated in the Gospel's final chapters. In each geographical arena and through the Gospel's narrative movement important theological resonances emerge that underscore the action of God revealed through the empowered Jesus in his wilderness encounter and his mission in Galilee, to Jerusalem, and an empty tomb "that paradoxically becomes the place where the power of unending life is affirmed" (p. 48). In chap. 2, S. explores the landscape of Matthew's Gospel. He acknowledges Matthew's dependence on Mark and the hypothetical Q source as he identifies the Gospel's unique literary, historical, and geographical features. Matthew moves its focus from east to west and adopts a universalizing movement as the shift in its audience turns toward the gentiles. The landscape of Luke-Acts is the heart of chap. 3. It centers on Jerusalem and its temple initially, then follows the Marcan landscape. But it is in the Acts of the Apostles that Luke's landscape embraces the Greco-Roman world, beginning again in Jerusalem and then moving beyond, eventually to Rome. In chap. 4, S. highlights the cosmic landscape of John, the role that Galilee plays in the Gospel and the unique addition of Samaria, moving to Jerusalem with John concluding at the Sea of Tiberias. Senior believes that the Gospel landscapes are a reminder that the central truth of Christian faith is incarnational. He concludes his book with a reflection on the gift of land as a revelation of the transcendent God and the invitation to live in justice and peace. For those wanting...