Addressing impunity in Kenya through a postcolonial reading of ‘authority’ in mark 1:21-28
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Date
2014-09
Authors
Kiambi, Julius Kithinji
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Abstract
In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is presented as the authoritative one in the sense that
He exercises power and authority by virtue of His high position and
relationship to God the Father. Power and authority are concepts that Mark
builds up in his Gospel, with the use of the word, Exousia (e)cousia) to
distinguish Jesus’ authority from that of the world. Using postcolonial biblical
criticism, this study explores Mark’s usage of exousia in 1:21-28 to argue that
imperial ideology is constituted in the gospel’s construction of the concept of
authority (exousia). The inquiry on the usage of exousia in Mark’s Gospel
comes against a background of an ever growing culture of impunity in a
country that is predominantly Christian. Therefore, the key question was; how
can we address the prevailing and ever-growing culture of impunity in Kenya
through a postcolonial reading of the concept of exousia in Mark 1:21-28? In
order to address this and other questions, this study employed the postcolonial
framework to argue that Mark is influenced by the imperial setting of his day
to provide the images that he does in the concept of exousia. The study’s
objectives were to offer an alternative and contextual reading of exousia in
Mark’s Gospel, to establish the need for postcolonial biblical criticism in
Kenya, to demonstrate that pre-critical reading of the Bible in Kenya has
contributed to the culture of impunity, and to develop enabling and
emancipatory language in the reduction of impunity in Kenya. Being a
qualitative study, and employing the Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM),
data was obtained in churches from church-going Christians in Nairobi City,
through Contextual Bible Study group discussions and key informant
interviews. Samples were decided through simple random sampling, purposive
and cluster sampling. Data was analysed using the NuVivo data analysis
software, and exegesis. Among other things, the study reveals that though not
entirely, impunity as present in Kenya emanates from the empire and partly
derives from interactions with Mark’s exousia. Towards this end, this study
recommends another hermeneutics for rereading the Bible in order to address
impunity. A ‘way’ reminiscent of the ‘way’ in Mark’s Gospel has also been
proposed for addressing impunity in Kenya
Description
Doctor of Philosophy (phd), Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies 291p. September 2014. BS 521.88 .K5