Beyond Fear and Silence: A Feminist Reading of Mark
by Joan Mitchell, CSJ
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The Gospel of Mark ends curiously. Three women disciples visit Jesus' tomb and find it empty. A young man in white tells them Jesus has risen and commissions them to tell the other disciples and Peter. But the women never deliver this good news that they are the first to hear. "They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid," Mark tells us in the gospel's last verse.
Sister Joan Mitchell takes this final verse of Mark's gospel as the key to its interpretation. Using feminist and literary tools, she finds that for Mark, it is Jesus' annoymous and powerless followers, not the named disciples, who proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah.
The fear and silence of the women at the tomb (who eventually do tell, or how would we know about the resurrection?) call Christians today to speak our truth of God alive in our world. This book is a powerful encouragement to Christian women and to all Jesus' ordinary followers today who voices are necessary for a widening dialog in the Church. Anyone who teaches, preaches, or studies Mark's gospel should have this book high on their list. |
Joan Mitchell, publisher of Good Ground Press, is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet and editor of the lectionary-based programs SUNDAY BY SUNDAY for adults and SPIRIT for teens. Sister Joan has a BA from the College of St. Catherine, a MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD in New Testament from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. |
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Reviews
Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza's "hermeneutic of suspicion" is possibly the most formative idea to emerge from the feminist biblical scholarship of the late 1990s. As one of Schussler-Fiorenza's former students, Mitchell is heir to this tradition, applying it here to the Gospel of Mark. But Mitchell goes beyond the hermeneutic of suspicion to employ literary and narrative approaches to the text, suggesting an alternative interpretation of its unsatisfactory original ending. (the "first draft" of Mark has women fleeing Jesus' empty tomb in fear.) The motifs of fear and silence, Mitchell argues, "are essential to the story, a necessary part of literary whole," and they are present throughout the Gospel. Those with little experience with the jargon of the feminist hermeneutics of liberation should learn the lingo elsewhere before minign this book for its considerable fruits. - Publishers Weekly
In this contribution to feminist biblical studies, Joan Mitchell shows how an informed reading and hearing of familiar scriptual stories can lead to a new understanding of women's importance as faithful followers of Jesus and especially as significant eye-witnessess at the empty tomb on Easter morning. - Catherine McNamee, former president, National Catholic Educational Association
