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‘To the Other Side’: Construction of Evil and Fear of Liberation in Mark 5.1-20

The Northern Ordination Course, Luther King House, Brighton Grove, Manchester M14 5JP, chris{at}thenoc.org.uk

Narratives, like the establishment of identities, proceed by oppositions and the construction of what is ‘other’. In the present global situation, alertness to such constructions and their dangers is vital, especially when they derive from canonical texts. After an examination of the case for Mark’s Gospel as liberating story, the article analyses the construction of evil as foreignness in the story of the Gerasene demoniac and its subsequent subversion—first by the revelation of the demons’ name and its political reference, then by the local people’s rejection of Jesus, and finally by the healed man’s proclamation. Jesus’ crossing ‘to the other side’ is seen as a paradigm of his own and the implied readers’ continuing transition to engagement with the Other.

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