Episode 10: Breathing mysticism | A conversation with Angela N. Parker
How do I replenish myself so that I can do what God has called me to do?
In this episode, Angela N. Parker talks about mysticism and contemplation, the movement of collective breath, and the January 6 insurrection.
“When I read Jesus in the biblical text, I see Jesus gathering groups of people to actually walk against a Roman imperialistic supremacist system," Parker says. "There's something that was missed at the insurrection ... On January 6, Jesus becomes the supremacist system."
Dr. Parker is assistant professor of New Testament and Greek at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology. In her research, she merges Womanist thought and postcolonial theory while reading biblical texts. Her books include If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority. In this book, Parker draws from her experience as a Womanist New Testament scholar to deconstruct one of White Christianity’s most pernicious lies: the conflation of biblical authority with the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility.
In her book Bodies, Violence, & Emotions: A Womanist Study of the Gospel of Mark, Parker thinks through the issue of imperial violence and its effects on the bodies of Jesus, John the Baptizer, and the woman suffering in a flow of blood in Mark 5. Throughout, she engages real, lived experiences of violence in contemporary society.
