Servant leadership revisited : διακονία, masculinity and martyrdom in Mark 10:42–45

Abstract

Mark 10:42–45 is a key text for discussions of ‘diakonia’ and the related ministry of ‘deacons’ in the church. This paper uses a gender-critical approach to analyse the text, in the course of which a new exegetical proposal is made. It is argued not only that this text makes a somewhat subversive proposal for leadership, but also that our understanding of it can be furthered by means of masculinities studies