I have never read an interpretation of scripture from a
feminist’s point of view so I found this assignment quite interesting. As I was reading Nelavala’s interpretation of
Mark 7:24-31, it became evident that she perceived Jesus as being an “oppressor”
(her wording). I would argue that
oppressor is a word that generally has negative connotations, so it is
interesting to read Jesus with such a characteristic. The negative views that Nelavala pointed out
such as Jesus’ judgmental and, I hate to use the word again, but, oppressing characteristics
made me wonder if feminists can actually look at Jesus and understand who he is
as an all-loving figure—equally all- loving to and for both genders. Often, we think of God as being all loving, all
knowing, and perfect, which in a sense are personalities that would be passed
down to Jesus, the one who committed no sin.
However, from Nelavala’s feminist point of view, Jesus does not seem to
be anywhere close to perfect. In fact,
the Syrophoenician woman is described to have been someone who gave Jesus a
chance to change. It is hard for me, as
someone who practices Christianity, to see Jesus as being a figure or person
who needs changing because of his oppressive and “selfish” ways.
What are your thoughts? Do you think that feminists (generally)
can see Jesus as a male figure that is unbiased to gender, promoting a sense of
equality throughout scripture?
*Disclaimer: “feminist” in this post is used very generally. By no means am I claiming that all feminist might
think this way; however, these questions specifically came up from this text
and the “Feminist Reading of Mark 7:24-31” so the questions are mostly targeted
at this interpretation.
Hey Annie, what an interesting comment. I totally agree that this perspective does not view Jesus as a loving character, through his oppressive comments and "mistaken" racism. Although I personally agree with where you are coming from, I also see Jesus as a loving character, I think it is also important to be aware that not all Christians share that point of view. At the end of your post, you said that it is hard for you as a Christian to see Jesus as someone who is oppressive. There are some stories in the Bible that represent God in ways that are very harsh. Specifically, in the New Testament book of Acts that we read, there is a story of two people who lied about the proportion of money that they were giving to the church. According to the Bible, God struck them dead. This doesn't seem very gentle and compassionate and merciful as so many like to portray God. The important difference to me is to recognize that loving can seem hard to us. It might be "tough love", in our vernacular. But, even further, there are some traditions that don't view God as loving and caring. I talked to someone who was Greek Orthodox who views God as all-powerful and as someone who doesn't really care about the feelings of the individual persons on earth. So, while I'm not answering your question on feminists, I think it is important to note that there are certain sects of Christianity that don't view God as individually loving.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment - I got the same vibe after reading this. I also practice Christianity, so this paper does not make it easy for me to comprehend that Jesus is not perfect, or as you and the author said, "oppresses." However, I think it definitely throws in a unique perspective of Jesus into the mix of all the scholarly articles we have read thus far. For one, the article illustrates Jesus's oppression, which completely contradicts what most people (especially Christians) think of Jesus (that is a supreme, perfect being). Furthermore, we have to keep in mind that this woman is a feminist, so reading an argument against a male figure like Jesus should not be too unexpected; however, it is still difficult to dissect that Jesus oppressed others. To answer your question, I think that the majority of people out there (including feminists) see Jesus as a male figure unbiased to gender. I'm sure though that there will be those (like the author) that will continue to argue that Jesus is not perfect and could be gender biased.
ReplyDeleteVery thoughtful conversation! Even feminist interpreters disagree on whether Jesus is primarily a liberating figure or a figure that sometimes is oppressive. And feminist interpreters disagree about whether the job of feminist interpretation is to highlight the liberatory parts of the Bible or also to critique parts of those that are problematic.
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