Messiah in Weakness: A Portrait of Jesus from the Perspective of the Dispossessed - Paperback

by Yung Suk Kim (Author)

Yung Suk Kim raises a perennial question about Jesus: How can we approach the historical Jesus? Kim proposes to interpret him from the perspective of the dispossessed--through the eyes of weakness. Exploring Jesus's experience, interpretation, and enactment of weakness, understanding weakness as both human condition and virtue, Kim offers a new portrait of Jesus who is weak and strong, and empowered to bring God's rule, replete with mercy, in the here and now. Arguing against the grain of tradition that the strong Jesus identifies with the weak, Kim demonstrates that it is the weak Jesus who identifies with the weak. The paradoxical truth with Jesus is: "Because he is weak, he is strong." In the end, Jesus dies a death of paradox that reveals both his ultimate weakness that demands divine justice, and his unyielding spirit of love for the world and truth of God.

Author Biography

Yung Suk Kim is Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology of Virginia Union University. He is the author of seven books, including Christ's Body in Corinth (2008) and Resurrecting Jesus (Cascade, 2015). He has edited two volumes: 1-2 Corinthians (2013) and Reading Minjung Theology in the Twenty-First Century (Pickwick, 2013). He is the editor of the Journal of Bible and Human Transformation and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion.