In the class discussion on Tuesday, we talked a lot about the leprosy story and illness vs. disease.
To refresh us on the difference:
Illness- What patients suffer. Psychological experience and meaning of perceived disease.
created by personal, social, and cultural reactions to disease
Disease- Physical abnormality. Can be diagnosed and treated by physicians. malfunctioning of biological.
A leper approached Jesus and asked him to "make him clean." It never says if Jesus healed the illness or cured the disease, only that "he was made clean."
Lower class peasants, who are more likely to believe in magic, may believe that Jesus is a miracle physician who can cure any disease.
Wealthier citizens, although they may disapprove Jesus touching a leper, may see that Jesus refuses to ostracise the sick man and therefore heal him of his illness.
Or a third option, perhaps there was no actual man, but the story and the infected body are a metaphor for the politic body, representing the social body with "ingoing and outgoings categorised as clean or unclean, (89)" which establishes an intense concentration boundary establishment. It is a symbolic contamination.
The story's interpretation varies on who and which class is doing the interpreting. Through which eyes do you see the story?
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