Emotions of Protest in Mark 11−13: Responding to an Affective Turn in Social-Scientific Discourse

Abstract

Here I want to imaginatively juxtapose Barton’s attention to the emotions with Telford’s close reading of the fig tree and temple incident to probe emotional dimensions of ‘protest’ encountered in the context of Mark chapters 11−13. For, as the sociologist James Jasper has shown, as a fundamental grounding of both social movements and actions, ‘affective and reactive emotions enter into protest activities at every stage.’ Mark’s specific casting of the emotional fabric of these chapters, as will be seen, seems purposefully designed to rouse within his audience emotions which can be channelled into endurance in the face of persecution, and social and ideological protest against the status quo.