‘Put Your Finger Here’: Resurrection and the Construction of the Body

This paper brings contemporary theories of gender and sexuality, including Judith Butler’s performative theory of gender and Foucault’s theory of power, to bear upon reading the resurrection story as told in Jn 20.17-27. By examining ancient constructions of gender, I argue that Jesus reflects both geographical and gender mobility in the gospel accounts of his life and ministry, and then embark on an analysis of the gender instability in Jesus’ submission, death and resurrection, concluding that instability and dynamism, rather than fixedness and stasis, are the conditions of ‘eternity’ and ‘eternal life’, and the hallmarks of transcendent (rather than ‘transcended’) humanity.