literalism about every detail and obstinate scepticism about everything that sounds ‘supernatural’. That is the way to avoid the real challenge, the difficulty and the promise of the Gospel. The narrative first and foremost depicts and seeks to realize for us, the readers, a relationship within which the stories make sense and are credible: we’re not being invited to make a detached judgement. Which is not a roundabout way of saying that the miracles in Mark are not real, but to say that to read