David Johnson's Readings commentary on Mark blends an affective approach, narrative criticism, and is rooted in Pentecostal spirituality's integration of belief, passions, and works. Moving away from a mind-body dualism, Johnson insists that interpretation is holistic and embodied; beginning from the starting point that Mark is a story, a moving one, and one that evokes feelings. Readers are invited to consider how Mark affects them emotionally, asking simply: what is this story doing? It has been said that, if you read the Gospels and are never moved to tears, you are not reading them well: this commentary takes that insight as its starting point.
Johnson reads Mark through the dual lens of bodies and feelings, by providing sections dedicated to these categories in the commentary. This format provides attention to features of the embodied life of characters sometimes overlooked such as meals, hunger, touch, hugs, cups of water, healings, bodily uncleanness, the feelings of interest, anger, frustration, grief, sadness, shame, anguish, fear and trembling, and uncertainty. Attention is provided to both the feelings described in the text as well as considering the feelings that might be experienced by the readers.
Reading the gospel is an inherently political and communal act. This reading explores how bodies and feelings operate within structures and the role of power. The affective approach to reading traces those bodily moments and the feelings they provoke, from joy to terror or disgust to uncertainty. Interpretation is not simply an intellectual exercise but an experience always including bodies and feelings. Johnson encourages reflection on the reading process of the whole person to discover what 'sticks', what catches in the throat, knots the stomach, or stirs that heat of anger or shame. Difficult, ambiguous, or 'dire' texts become meaningful when sitting with the feelings that they provoke.
