Absolute Authority in Mark's Gospel: A Postcolonial Power Analysis of Power Abuse in Kenya

In this book Dr Kithinji examines how the gospel of Mark uses the word ἐξουσία ("absolute authority") to assign authority to Jesus. He discovers that in this gospel Jesus is a very authoritative personality, towering over and above everyone else. In the context of the postcolony where imperial powers relied on biblical texts to authorize and legitimize their power, Dr. Kithinji observes that this authority perpetuated imperial ideology that allows the growth of the culture of impunity. Those who exercise ἐξουσία deem themselves to be above all laws and constitutional leverages that can check their excessive authority and critique their power. Drawing on this conclusion, Dr Kithinji comparatively helps us understand how authoritarian power has given impunititious license to successive political regimes in Kenya. By being fastidious in chronicling the crimes that the Kenyan political elite have been committed, Dr Kithinji's work becomes instrumental in helping us appreciate the gravity of the concepts of ἐξουσία and impunity both in biblical literature and contemporary societies. This book is useful to students of Biblical Studies and religion, peace studies, postcolonial studies, political science, and all people of good will who are concerned about the common good.