Mark's Gospel has been around for quite a while—two thousand years, in fact. Why did you write a book about it now?
We do things for personal reasons, and then sometimes it turns out there are larger reasons. It's no secret that the Catholic Church is facing a serious crisis these days. Whether it's "the most serious" it has ever faced, or comparable to the Protestant Reformation or something like that, remains to be seen. But it's very serious. Historically, what happens when the Church goes through a crisis is that Catholics return to basic things—such as an emphasis on the life of prayer and a personal relationship with Christ. But we also turn to Scripture as a sure touchstone. Suppose the crisis in the Church has something to do with the Petrine office: then so much the better if one can write a book which meets this need to return to Scripture while at the same time emphasizing the reality and presence of the Petrine office. That's precisely what my book does.
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