This study has been conducted in two years, ranging over two related topics. The main arguments can be summarized as follows:
1. Jesus’ Jouissance of Eating and Drinking and Its Theological Implications in Light of His Kingdom Ministry
The human act ...
This study has been conducted in two years, ranging over two related topics. The main arguments can be summarized as follows:
1. Jesus’ Jouissance of Eating and Drinking and Its Theological Implications in Light of His Kingdom Ministry
The human act of eating and drinking allegedly does not end with the satisfaction of an animalistic appetite. Rather, it contributes to promoting cultural jouissance in the context of community gathering, in such a way that consolidates its identity. As a way of embodying the jouissance value, the common meal appears to be a prominent motif in the Hebrew Bible. In particular, the Book of Ecclesiastes contains its pivotal aspect with a focus on the daily jouissance of eating and drinking. In Greco-Roman cultural context, mostly in the Epicurean philosophy, it is apparent that people had been increasingly sensitive to how their participation in a common meal would be conducive to human pleasure. Especially, the people during the period of Roman empire became gradually enlightened on their physical body as the host of dynamic pleasure. With these backgrounds, this study highlights Jesus’ peculiar images of glutton and drunkard, seeking to reinterpret its subversive setting of life from a cultural theological perspective. Along the same line, Jesus’ parable of the great banquet and the last supper are brought into further discussion, illuminating its sensuous feature as a jouissance-oriented experience, apart from its eschatological and sacramental implications. All in all, this study aims to rediscover and reestimate the motif of banquet/festival with the common meal as a significant factor of God’s kingdom, i.e. an important legacy of Jesus’ theology, yet to be reassessed as a jouissance aspect of life.
2. The Last Jouissance of Jesus’ Body before Death: A Critical Reassessment of Mark 14:3-9 and Its Parallels
This study is to investigate Mark 14:3-9 and its parallels, with a particular focus on the motif of the special jouissance of one’s life in the last days while confronting death. For this purpose, first of all, a series of critical analysis is attempted to sort out each stage of tradition-history of the multi-layered texts, seeking to examine the editorial process of the gospel story. Further in the larger context of the Greco-Roman cultural history, equally remarkable is to trace the literary genre of the text which involves all intriguing motifs of self-care for a physical well-bing. In the related stories, all the literary devices which keenly highlight human sensuous elements such as costly nard perfume, a woman’s tear and hair, Jesus’ head and foot are brought to magnify Jesus’ physical jouissance in face of his approaching death. In this regard, one may conclude that this motif of the last physical jouissance carries a precious, yet often forgotten legacy of human culture, with a high theological value, as it is detected widely within and without the Scripture.