Journeys By Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power

by Rita Nakashima Brock

Paperback. Previous owner's name penned inside front cover. Slight wear on lower edge of text. Otherwise VG

Genres: Theology, Religion, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1991

About the author

Rita Nakashima Brock is a theologian and co-author with Rebecca Ann Parker of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us (Beacon Press, 2001) and Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire (Beacon Press, 2008). Brock is currently a director of Faith Voices for the Common Good.

Reviews

[Emily O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book encouraged me to view Jesus in terms of relationships. Though I would not go as far as Brock in declaring Jesus' sacrifice as non-salvific nor de-centering him as she does, I do agree with her assertion that greater attention should be placed to the community. Perhaps we have focused so heavily on our unilateral relationship with Jesus that we neglect the horizontal relationships he hoped we would foster. His life was one lived in deep relationship with those around him, and he sought to infuse the world with more life and love. Perhaps we should consider mores our calls to do the same, and instead of focusing so heavily on our individual salvation from sin, focus on the horizontal healing and community-building exemplified in Christ's life.
This book also makes me want to study Jesus' relationships more. How did his social context influence him? How did he affect, and how was he affected by, his relationships? How did he redefine notions of group?

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I see that others have appreciated this book so maybe it’s just me. I’ve read a fair bit of academic writing, but I just didn’t have the patience to slog through the jargon this time.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally read Brock's classic 1988 work. It has been referenced in so many other books I've read, I'm glad I've finally read the original.

When I started the other day I skimmed a lot at the beginning, as she was arguing for certain elements of feminist methodology that one doesn't have to argue for anymore but have become standard elements of theology without the "feminist" qualifier. It was good to realize how much we've improved the discipline.

Little that appears in the book is completely new to me, but her arguments were good to read, especially as she discussed anger, child abuse, and Jesus' exorcisms.

Her core message is that salvation comes through erotic power arising from the relationships of community built around Christ. Salvation is not in the person, life, or death of the historical Jesus. As with other feminists and womanists, her vision of salvation is more holistic than that traditionally promulgated by Christian theology.

Two paragraphs from the Epilogue will summarize her perspective:

The power that gives and sustains life does not flow from a dead and resurrected savior to his followers. Rather, the community sustains life-giving power by its memory of its own brokenheartedness and of those who have suffered and gone before and by its members being courageously and redemptively present to all. In doing so, the community remains Christa/Community and participates in the life-giving flow of erotic power. No one person or group exclusively reveals it or incarnates it. In thinking that a single person, a savior, or even one group can save us, we mistake the crest of a wave for the vast sea churning beneath it.

No one else can help us avoid our own pain. No one else can stop the suffering of brokenheartedness in our world but our own courage and willingness to act in the midst of the awareness of our own fragility. No one else can die for us or bring justice, liberation, and healing. The refusal to give up on ourselves and our willingness to struggle with brokenheartedness, involve us in healing the powers of destruction, which must be taken into our circle of remembrance and healing if we are to understand and love the whole of life. Our heartfelt action, not alone, but in the fragile, resilient interconnections we share with others, generates the power that makes and sustains life. There, in the erotic power of heart, we find the sacred mystery that binds us in loving each other fiercely in the face of suffering and pain and that empowers our witness against all powers of oppression and destruction.

[Walt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting discussion of power, love, and Jesus. The first part of the book examines what Power means, first as the dominating, "fusional" relationships of patriarchy, and then as the feminist "erotic" power. It seems to me that feminist "eros" is much more expansive than the original Greek word suggests, moving beyond just sexual connection to a creative, connecting, invitational type of life/love force. This power is described as being co-created by communities in relationship, especially during child development. While I do not have the psychological background to fully understand Nakashima Brock's theory of the formation of unilateral power, it does sound plausible and raises important questions about family structure and education.
The second part of the book uses this definition of erotic power to re-interpret Christianity through the figure of Christ. While I feel at times that this account discounts Jesus' own contributions to his community, it is nevertheless an intriguing exploration.
Finally, Nakashima Brock demonstrates how erotic power and Christ are portrayed in the gospel of Mark through healing and resurrection.
Overall, I love how this book takes a more personal/subjective look at liberative Christianity, and wonder how developments in feminism and political philosophy might change how such a book would be written today.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to come back to a book over 20 years after I first read it. I really liked the first part of the book, which deals with brokenheartedness, was bored with the second part, on feminist christology (which was kind of a surprise to me since I used to really get into "fully God/fully 'man'" stuff in grad school--30 years ago!), and was mildly interested in the last part, which deals with the Gospel of Mark. (Of course, I'm now reading it after having written a book on Mark.) So, to generalize so much as to "caricaturize" (like that word?) in the first part Brock does psychology, second part theology, and third, Bible, none too deeply or thoroughly. It seems like she gets a theorist and runs with her for awhile, until she's tired (or until I'm tired).

I must say, though, to use Quaker-ese, that Rita Nakashima Brock (who is a Fb friend and may be reading this) spoke to my condition in the first part. Thank you, Rita. Many good points - depth of damage, extent of vulnerability, and relationship-seeking self. importance of ANGER (GRRRR!). Peace to you, Rita, as you go about your current work (which I think is about trauma healing in regards to war maybe).

P.S. Erotic power - yes! WWJD? - no. How am I feeling right now? How are others feeling? What can I do to help heal myself and them? (or something like that) - YES! (Rita's really not very interested in christology here, more anthropology, even ecclesiology, and maybe I'm not either. Christa/Community is her thing. Ok. OK. OK!

[Krista Danis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brock argues that the human experience is persistently impaired if we continue to observe Jesus as the salvific hero, one whose suffering at the hands of a godly father who sacrifices his perfect son in forgiveness of perpetual human sin is used as evidence, somehow, of a loving power. On the contrary, by envisioning Jesus as he illuminates community and the ways in which he is enabled to strengthen resistance and even subversion through several empowered women, feminist erotic power emerges as an exaltation of interdependence, subversion of traditional mind/body binaries, and connection in the face of disabling oppression.

I read Journeys by Heart after reading several of Brene Brown's books on shame and vulnerability. Brock offered a nice segway into a spiritual analysis of brokenheartedness that remains feminist, rejects the conventional readings of Jesus as the martyred son whose death somehow redeems humanity of its sins (as the idea of sin, for Brock, is reimagined as the result of oppressive power), and returns the locus of power to the human body by reifying its experience alongside the favored mind. And it is in both body and mind that we have memory, and can only together resist.

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best question instead of wwjd. How do I feel right now, how are others felling, and what can I do to lessen all our pain and suffering in this context?