Nonviolent Story: Narrative Conflict Resolution in the Gospel of Mark
What do the gospels contribute to our understanding of nonviolent versus violent means of conflict resolution? Many biblical scholars contend that the gospels have little to say on this subject. Others seek answers in ethical principles found in Jesus's teachings, which may or may not be interpreted as accepting or rejecting violence. In Nonviolent Story Robert Beck proposes a new way of reading the Gospel of Mark, one that points to a challenging message of nonviolent resistance as reflected in the story of Jesus's life and ministry. According to narrative analysis, the message of the Gospel is found in the structure of the story itself. Beck contends that the narrative form of Mark's gospel portrays Jesus as a protagonist who does not avoid conflict, but enters into it without himself resorting to violence. He thus serves as a model of the nonviolent resistance that inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. By using literary analysis to explore Mark's gospel, Beck opens up a "counter-story" that challenges the prevailing American cultural myth of "constructive violence." Beck uses the Western tales of Louis L'Amour as the narrative essence of this pop mythology--and the total opposite of the story told by Mark.
"1112053855"
Nonviolent Story: Narrative Conflict Resolution in the Gospel of Mark
What do the gospels contribute to our understanding of nonviolent versus violent means of conflict resolution? Many biblical scholars contend that the gospels have little to say on this subject. Others seek answers in ethical principles found in Jesus's teachings, which may or may not be interpreted as accepting or rejecting violence. In Nonviolent Story Robert Beck proposes a new way of reading the Gospel of Mark, one that points to a challenging message of nonviolent resistance as reflected in the story of Jesus's life and ministry. According to narrative analysis, the message of the Gospel is found in the structure of the story itself. Beck contends that the narrative form of Mark's gospel portrays Jesus as a protagonist who does not avoid conflict, but enters into it without himself resorting to violence. He thus serves as a model of the nonviolent resistance that inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. By using literary analysis to explore Mark's gospel, Beck opens up a "counter-story" that challenges the prevailing American cultural myth of "constructive violence." Beck uses the Western tales of Louis L'Amour as the narrative essence of this pop mythology--and the total opposite of the story told by Mark.
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Nonviolent Story: Narrative Conflict Resolution in the Gospel of Mark

Nonviolent Story: Narrative Conflict Resolution in the Gospel of Mark

Nonviolent Story: Narrative Conflict Resolution in the Gospel of Mark

Nonviolent Story: Narrative Conflict Resolution in the Gospel of Mark

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Overview

What do the gospels contribute to our understanding of nonviolent versus violent means of conflict resolution? Many biblical scholars contend that the gospels have little to say on this subject. Others seek answers in ethical principles found in Jesus's teachings, which may or may not be interpreted as accepting or rejecting violence. In Nonviolent Story Robert Beck proposes a new way of reading the Gospel of Mark, one that points to a challenging message of nonviolent resistance as reflected in the story of Jesus's life and ministry. According to narrative analysis, the message of the Gospel is found in the structure of the story itself. Beck contends that the narrative form of Mark's gospel portrays Jesus as a protagonist who does not avoid conflict, but enters into it without himself resorting to violence. He thus serves as a model of the nonviolent resistance that inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. By using literary analysis to explore Mark's gospel, Beck opens up a "counter-story" that challenges the prevailing American cultural myth of "constructive violence." Beck uses the Western tales of Louis L'Amour as the narrative essence of this pop mythology--and the total opposite of the story told by Mark.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781725224681
Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date: 03/01/2009
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 224
File size: 37 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

A priest of the Dubuque Archdiocese, Robert Beck has been involved in peace and justice issues for a number of years, co-founding the ANAWIM Faith Resistance Community in Dubuque. He is currently professor of religious studies at Loras College. In addition to directing ministry formation and programs, Father Beck has authored an award-winning column on the lectionary, Sunday's Word.
Robert R. Beck (DMin, Catholic University of America) is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, IA, and Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Loras College in Dubuque. His publications include Nonviolent Story: Narrative Conflict Resolution in the Gospel of Mark (1996) and Banished Messiah: Violence and Nonviolence in Matthew's Story of Jesus (2010). He also publishes a column, "Sunday's Word," on the Sunday lectionary in the Dubuque Archdiocesan newspaper, The Witness. Beck is currently in his thirteenth year as chaplain at the Franciscan Motherhouse in Dubuque.
Ched Myers is an activist theologian and New Testament expositor working with peace and justice issues. He is a popular educator, animating scripture and literacy in historic and current social change movements. Myers has published over a hundred articles and eight books, including Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark's Story of Jesus (Orbis, 1988). He and his partner Elaine Enns are ecumenical Mennonites who codirect Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries (www.bcm-net.org), based in the Ventura River Watershed of southern California in traditional Chumash territory.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ched Myers IX

Preface XIII

Acknowledgments XVII

1 Louis L'Amour And The Myth of Constructive Violence 1

The Freedom Medalist 1

The Narrative Form 2

History and the Yarn 2

The Yarn and the Agon 4

The Agon as Narrative 6

The Narrative Outlook 8

Civilizing Violence 8

Men, Women, and Violence 8

Menace of Nonviolence 9

Myth and the Narrative Quality of Violence 11

Gospel: An Alternative Story? 14

Two Versions of Reality 14

A Thesis 17

2 On Reading Ancient Texts 19

The Absent Writer 20

An Urgent Message from the Evangelist 21

Opaque Texts 23

Genre 24

The Historical versus the Literary Projects 26

The Problem of Unshared Cultural Contexts 28

Popular Narrative 30

Narrative Criticism and the Gospel 32

Story and Discourse 32

Plot and Conflict 36

3 The Gospel As Agon 39

A Case for Mark's Plot 40

The Main Form: Blocking the Action 43

Two Beginnings 45

Cleansing Actions: Synagogue and Temple 47

Anointing Actions 48

The Dramatic Movement of the Plot 50

Act 1: The First Week (1:14-3:6) 51

Act 2: The New Family (3:7-6:6) 52

Act 3: Feeding the Multitude and Other Stories (6:7-8:30) 54

Act 4: The Road to the City (8:31-10:52) 55

Act 5: The Temple Action as the Narrative Climax (11:1-13:37) 57

Prophetic Dismantling 59

Act 6: Within the Times of Anointing (14:1-16:8) 60

4 The Symbolism of Power 63

Mark's Symbolic Vocabulary 65

Act 1: Holy and Unclean Power in Mark 70

Dangerous Language 70

Dangerous Gates 72

Act 2: Faith and Fear 75

Act 3: Opening a Door to the Gentiles 79

Gentile Mission, or Last Chance forPurity Rules? 82

The Climactic Event 83

Bodily Healing as Social Metaphor 85

Jesus' Symbolic Acts 87

Nonviolent Action 89

5 Jesus and His Disciples 92

The Teaching of Jesus 93

Precedents in Scripture 94

Messiah: Christological Lessons 96

Servant: A Nonviolent Christology 99

The Teaching of Jesus as Subplot 103

Finding the Main Plot and the Subplot 103

Imitation: The Heart of the Subplot's Conflict 106

The Conflict Resolved? 108

The Reader: Discipleship and the Structure of Irony 109

6 The Agon and Nonviolent Plot Resolution 114

Richard Horsley's Spiral of Violence 115

Gene Sharp's Three Moments 116

Sharp on the Gospel 119

Three Narrative Moves 120

The Move on Jerusalem 122

Moving from Temple to Garden 123

Garden to Cross: Nonretaliation 125

An Empty Tomb: An Unclosed Story 127

7 Breaking the Myth of Violence 130

Ways That Stories Tend 130

Popular Stories 131

A Story Formula 132

Poetic Justice 135

Innocence and Purgation 136

The Gospel Refusals 137

The Quality of Innocence 139

The World of Gift and Debt 143

Violence and Moral Outrage 146

Epilogue: Taking Stock 149

Appendix A Exegetical Outlines 153

Appendix B Narrative Transformations 157

Appendix C Jesus as Prophet - Notes on the Temple Action 159

Appendix D The Story Formula 164

The Terms 165

The Formula 167

Notes 169

Bibliography 193

Scripture Index 199

General Index 202

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A fresh new look at the good news of Gospel nonviolence . . . Provocative, insightful, stimulating, I highly recommend it."
—John Dear, SJ, author, The God of Peace

"Exciting encouragement to all who struggle to overcome the viciousness that permeates the fabric of our society."
—Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, OP

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