Call and Consequences
By: Raquel A St. Clair
.jpg)
Discerning the Call
A womanist reading of Mark 8:31-38 causes suffering to lose its sacred standing. Agony is shown to be not God’s will but a manifestation of moral evil. Where is god in the midst of human suffering? Why does God allow people to experience agony? The reality is that we may never know. However, the meaning potential in Mark’s gospel allow us to affirm that God is not the one who purposed Jesus’ pain, nor the one who wills our agony. Like Donald Jeul, who advises the readers of Mark’s Gospel not to look to God for the “necessity” of Jesus’ death but to look “below,” a womanist reading of this biblical text reminds us to look “below” for the causes of our own agony.
We must look “below” or we will miss the dynamic interaction between God’s will and human freedom. This freedom is characterized by the choice to follow God’s way as exemplified by Jesus and the choice to oppose it.
A womanist reading of Mark 8:31-38 demonstrates that both the call and consequences of discipleship are a part of the Gospel story. For this reason, it is important that we include both the call and the consequences in our discussion of discipleship.
Reviews:
HEARING JESUS’ CALL
to DISCIPLESHIP at
the MARGINS of SOCIETY
“The son of man must suffer,” Jesus tells his disciples in the Gospel of Mark, and interpreters agree that this warning is centrally important to the Gospel. But why must Jesus suffer, and why must his disciples face suffering if they would follow him? Is this a matter of “divine necessity,” or the consequence of historical opposition to Jesus’ cause?
Raquel St. Clair brings a womanist perspective to these questions, noting that marginalized persons, particularly women of color, too often experience the call to discipleship as a call simply to “suffering, shame, and surrogacy.” Her close reading of the Gospel of Mark highlights the importance of freely accepting the consequences of answering Jesus’ call.
“Raquel St. Clair’s careful
attention to exegetical details in the Gospel of Mark and her loving respect
for folks in the parish make Call and Consequences an impressively researched analysis of cross and
discipleship, and an essential read in the academy and in the church. No other book masterfully integrates
womanist theology, sociolinguistic cultural hermeneutics, and the radicality of
the good news concerning Christ with such facility and verve.”
KATIE G. CANNON
Annie
Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Ethics
Union
PSCE, Richmond Virginia