Postcolonial Discipleship of Embodiment An Asian and Asian American Feminist Reading of the Gospel of Mark

by Choi, Jin Young

• ISBN13: 9781137541543
• ISBN10: 1137541547
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-08-06
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus asks the disciples, 'Do you not yet understand?' Rereading the Gospel through the lens of Asian and Asian American feminist hermeneutics, Jin Young Choi interprets this 'understanding' as phronesis (embodied wisdom) rather than knowledge of Jesus' identity. Discipleship, Choi asserts, means embodying mystery. Amidst the Roman imperial construction of the colonized body, colonial subjects perceive, or are haunted by, Jesus' body as phantasmic, consumed, and passive. The mystery of Jesus' transcorporeal body disrupts the imperial presence, while conveying the subjectivity of othered bodies that are invisible, placeless, and voiceless in both ancient and contemporary postcolonial contexts. This postcolonial feminist rereading of Mark calls for an ethical relation with the single figure of the crucified for continued life-giving and meaning-making.

Author Biography

Jin Young Choi, a native of South Korea, holds a Ph.D. in New Testament and Early Christianity at Vanderbilt University, USA. She is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, USA, and a Louisville Institute fellow.

Table of Contents

Introduction
PART I: APPROACHING 
1. Rereading Discipleship
2. Knowledge, Body, and Subjectivity in Theoretical Frameworks
3. Asian and Asian American Feminist Hermeneutics of Phronesis
PART II: A PHRONETIC READING OF MARK
4. Empire and Body: Bodies, Territories, and Language
5. The Phantasmic Body (Mark 6:45-52)
6. The Consumed Body (Mark 7:24-30)
7. The Passive Body (Mark 7:31-37)
Conclusion