Phillips answers the question of how an agnostic son and concerned parents find peace during a wrenching but bonding period of two weeks together leading up to the son's death.

Author Phillip's premise is that without hope sustained by faith and love there is no future centered in a God-given calling. This truth he sees expressed in Mark's pictorial Gospel which often depicts the emotional state of persons who turn to Jesus for help and healing. Jesus' response to human need is incisive in that it covers the spiritual as well as the physical dimension of life. Also Mark describes encounters that Jesus had with religious and secular foes, and demonic forces. In these encounters the wisdom, power, and courage of Jesus is manifest, and the ultimate triumph of God's...