Resources for Gibson's 
"The Passion of the Christ"

Background / Guides / Information / Further Links
    "Dude, That Was Graphic" (from Christianity Today)

• The National Council of Churches provides a two page "Reflection Guide to the Movie, "The Passion of the Christ"

• The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: "The Bible, the Jews, and the Death of Jesus" information

• The Passion of the Christ.com (official movie site)
• The Passion of The Christ (promotional links)
• The Passion of The Christ - (many resources, largely positive)
• Special Section The Passion of the Christ - Christianity Today - (many resources, largely positive)
• The Passion of Christ (New Testament Gateway Jesus in Film) - very helpful index to further resources
• Passion Movie at Youth Specialities - (the usual good stuff from YS: articles, resources, discussion, etc. and be sure to note the free study guides, worship service and more)
• The Passion at the Bible Resource Center (American Bible Society)
• Faith Lens Bible study and discussion guide for youth at the ELCA site with links to other resources
• Concerns and Recommendations on "The Passion of the Christ" by the Consultative Panel on Lutheran/Jewish Relations
• Up for Discussion discussion guide for adult small groups by Craig R. Koester, downloadable from Augsburg Fortress for $4.95
• Metromix.com - The Jesuit scholar who translated `The Passion' - Some very interesting background on the Latin and Hebrew used!
• Commission On Interreligious Affairs: The Passion of the Christ - Reform Judaism site with fine collection of resources, reviews, links
• The Passion of the Christ - extensive list of links posted at Textweek.com
• Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross by Martin Hengel - If you really want to know about crucifixion, this is the book. (Amazon link)
• On The Passion of the Christ at faithmaps.org - Definitely worth checking
• The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Anne Catherine Emmerich (This appears to be closer to the actual script for the movie than any of the Gospels.)
• The Passion by William J. Cork - A lengthy description of the movie with special attention to anti-Semitic issues
• Arab censors giving 'Passion' wide latitude - Gibson film packs Mideast movie houses
• New Survey Examines the Impact of Gibson’s “Passion” Movie from The Barna Group
• Bible Resource Center - Scripture resources and many external links to other resources

Reviews Critical of the Movie:
    "[Jesus] takes a flaying and keeps on praying." Richard Corliss, "The Goriest Story Ever Told" (Time)

• "Nailed" by David Denby, The New Yorker (March 1, 2004)
  "By embracing the Roman pageant so openly, using all the emotional resources of cinema, Gibson has cancelled out the redemptive and transfiguring power of art. And by casting James Caviezel, an actor without charisma here, and then feasting on his physical destruction, he has turned Jesus back into a mere body."
   
• "The Jesus War" by Peter J. Boyer, The New Yorker (September 15, 2003)
  "In focussing on Gibson's Traditionalist Catholicism, some of his critics have created the expectation that “The Passion” is a medieval Passion play depicting Jews in horns drinking Christian blood. It is not that. Nor is it the attenuated dramatization that the Catholic scholars might have wished for. Gibson's “Passion” is a literalist rendering of the Gospels' account of Jesus' Passion, which makes it the ultimate Traditionalist expression."
   
• So What's the Good News? by David Ansen, Newsweek (February, 2004)
  "Instead of being moved by Christ's suffering, or awed by his sacrifice, I felt abused by a filmmaker intent on punishing an audience, for who knows what sins. Others may well find a strong spirituality in "The Passion"—I can't pretend to know what this movie looks like to a believer—but it was Gibson's fury, not his faith, that left a deep, abiding aftertaste."
   
• "Why It's So Bloody" by David Van Biema Time (24 February 2004)
  "With due respect for his desire that Christ's sacrifice be understood by all and for the gratitude among Christians that a Hollywood deity has finally made an accomplished and utterly unironical Christian film, one can only hope that he has it wrong."
   
• Not Peace, but a Sword by William Safire New York Times (3.1.2004)
  The word "passion" is rooted in the Latin for "suffer." Mel Gibson's movie about the torture and agony of the final hours of Jesus is the bloodiest, most brutal example of sustained sadism ever presented on the screen... The richness of Scripture is in its openness to interpretation answering humanity's current spiritual needs. That's where Gibson's medieval version of the suffering of Jesus, reveling in savagery to provoke outrage and cast blame, fails Christian and Jew today.
   
• Groves of Academe: Passions, Past and Present by David Remnick The New Yorker (March 8, 2004)
  [Elaine] Pagels pointed out that the history of western art is rife with representations of the Passion that avoid divisive sentiment. “In the ‘St. Matthew Passion,’” she said, “Bach was very aware of the problem of arousing anti-Semitic feelings and he wanted deliberately to avoid that. So at the moment when there is the cry to crucify Christ, the call comes not from an identifiable group of Jews but from all, from the entire chorus. Bach demonstrated what Gibson claims that he wanted to show, the inclination of human beings, universally, to do violence.”
   
• 'Passion' and the U.S. culture war by Frank Rich International Herald Tribune
  The vilification of Jews by Gibson, his film and some of his allies, unchallenged by his media enablers, is not happening in a vacuum. We are in the midst of an escalating election-year culture war in which those of "faith" are demonizing so-called secularlists - any Jews critical of Gibson and their fellow travelers, liberals.
   
• The Revolver: Jesus was no X-man by Peter Aspden FT.com
  Christian doctrine is nothing if not subtle. Like the life and death of Christ, it inhabits that twilight world between the human and the divine. It nestles, at times uneasily, between the mortal blackness that is Good Friday, and the unlikely triumph of Easter Sunday. Gibson, with his fleshy version of the Passion, goes nowhere near that awkward space... Hollywood, with its cheap addiction to supernatural redeemer figures, ironically finds it hard to deal with the most supernatural, most redeeming figure of all. Jesus was no X-Man. And Gibson, in turn, fatally confuses realism with truth. Perhaps some centuries ago, the accurate depiction of a ruptured artery in a painting of the Crucifixion would have impressed us into changing our beliefs. Verisimilitude rang victorious. But we need to look for better arguments now. Especially now.
   
• A 'Passion' Out of Proportion (washingtonpost.com) by Gertrude Himmelfarb
  It is not so much anti-Semitism that worries me -- not in America, at least, although the film might well have that effect abroad... What I find so disquieting is the coarsening of the religious sensibility evident in the response to this new Passion play, as if the message of Jesus is validated only by that degree of suffering, torture and violence, as if a lesser degree would make him less a savior and redeemer. By the same token, the culture as a whole is coarsened, abandoning any notion of limits and restraints, requiring more and more doses of sadism, continually going "over the edge," as if seeking redemption in the abyss.
 
 
• History, Hollywood, and the Bible: Some Thoughts on Gibson's Passion by Paula Fredricksen
  Why, then, should those of us who are professionally and personally committed to New Testament scholarship and to education care about Gibson's film? We have myriad reasons, both intellectual and moral. But the release of this unhappy movie affords all of us an unrivalled opportunity for education — in classrooms; in churches; in interfaith groups; and perhaps also in synagogues, where American Jews may well be disturbed, frightened, or offended by this cinematographic recrudescence of so many old, European canards. If The Passion of the Christ can give us a teachable moment, we can work to ameliorate some of the damage that Gibson's irresponsible sensationalism might do. I think that, as scholars of the New Testament, we must at least try. If not us, then who? And if not now, when?
   
• So Much Irony In This Passion (washingtonpost.com) by Paul Richard
  And now along comes Gibson, returning to center stage the vivid Catholic imagery -- sensual, argumentative, Marian and Latinate -- of Counter-Reformation art. He is, no doubt, sincere. But then the Aztec priests who ripped out human hearts were pretty sincere, too... The act of seeking the divine through blood and gruesome suffering didn't start with Gibson. It must be immensely old... Pictures bring the past with them. And so do visual styles. There is a lot of "anti" in Gibson's film, and not only anti-Semitism. The film is anti the secular, and anti the sqeamish. And the many clean-cross Protestants who see it ought to be reminded that the style of its images once was aimed at Christians pretty much like them.
   
• Gibson's 'Passion of Christ' A Potential Setback for Christian-Jewish Relations and other resources at the Anti-Defamation League website
   
• "Special Gibson" (The Martin Marty Center Sightings) by Margaret M. Mitchell (3.11.04)
  Is Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, anti-Semitic? Can any account of the death of Jesus which is based on the gospels not be? The four canonical gospels are "more or less" anti-Judaistic (a more precise term for this context, where other "Semites" are not in view), if what we mean by that is that they increasingly place the blame for the death of Jesus on Jews and Jewish authorities, and absolve the Roman occupational forces...  If we think of Mel Gibson as a modern-day fifth evangelist, we can ask, is his film "more" or "less" on this same trajectory of increasing blame on Jews for the death of Jesus? The verdict seems to me clearly on the "more," even "abundantly more," both for what Mr. Gibson chooses to include from the existing accounts, and, particularly, the "Special Gibson" (SpGib) material that conditions the interpretation of the traditional sources into which it is stitched.
   
• The Passion of the Christian by Dr. John C. McDowell (4.20.04)
  I did appreciate the fact that the violence inflicted on Jesus may now rightly highlight the brutal sentimentality and hollowness of the way we Christians are all too prone to sanitise and garland the cross, and domesticate Jesus into a purveyor of good clean and wholesome values.  Even so, I did not think that I had been made confront the truth of the Gospel in any real sense.  In fact, there was little Gospel here... The question uncomfortably remains:  what kind of edification is appropriate from meditating on the passion of Jesus Christ to the exclusion of pretty much everything else about Jesus’ life?

Reviews Positive of the Movie:
    "I hope it makes people ask questions, and maybe even makes them want to read 'the Book.'" Mel Gibson as quoted by Phil Boatwright

• The Wilberforce Forum The Passion of the Christ Viewers Guide
  "We understand that the violence will be too much for some to handle. However, we believe that for most Christians, the experience will be an overwhelmingly positive one. The Passion of the Christ is both a great work of art in its own right and a work that directs our minds and hearts toward our Redeemer. To watch this re-enactment is to gain a deeper understanding of what Jesus suffered for our sakes. Sometimes, even the most powerful story loses some of its impact when we’ve been reading it all our lives. A film like this helps us to see it in a fresh way that inspires praise and gratitude to the God who gave His life for us."
   
• Ramesh Ponnuru on The Passion of the Christ on National Review Online
  "The mood in which Christians should watch the movie, in which they can hardly help being as they watch it, is penitential. They should be careful to avoid the temptation to make of this movie more than it is... What I hope is that the movie will help to effect a deeper conversion of the already converted."
   
• Crosswalk.com - A News Anchor's Perspective on The Passion of the Christ by Jody Dean
  "This is not a movie that anyone will "like". I don't think it's a movie anyone will "love". It certainly doesn't "entertain". There isn't even the sense that one has just watched a movie. What it is…an experience - on a level of primary emotion that is scarcely comprehensible... Go see this movie."
   
• Crosswalk.com - Quid Est Veritas A Review of The Passion of the Christ by Annabelle Robertson
  "My tears, as well as those of the seasoned film critics sitting around me, were copious. It is a hard film to watch. Yet, it is equally impossible to turn away. Suddenly, the cost of my salvation is personal, very personal. It is also an important film, an epic... It is hard to criticize a film that is so beautiful, so moving and so faithful to the Gospel accounts. Although many will recoil from its graphic nature, the horror Gibson shows us is necessary for a true understanding of the sacrifice and the terrible cost that was paid when God sent his only Son to die."
   
• The Passion of the Christ Movie Review by Eric Shafer, ELCA Dept. for Communication
  "...it is important for Christians (and others) who view this film to read the Gospel accounts before and/or after their viewing. The danger is that this film will become the Oliver Stone’s "JFK" of Christ’s Passion story, that is, that the public will only know the Passion story as it is depicted here with all of the non-Biblical material assumed to be Biblical or historic"
   
• "Black Theology and The Passion" by Robert M. Franklin (Sightings, Martin Marty Center, Feb. 19, 2004)
  Based on the excerpts that I have seen, I think the movie will offend many mainstream white religious audiences and resonate deeply with most blacks...  Since the slave period, blacks have understood and portrayed Jesus as a Suffering Savior and a grassroots leader who was the victim of state-sponsored terror."
   
• "The Passion of the Christ Assaults Our Sensibilities" at othesource
  Christ’s death holds a mirror up confronting us with the brutal capacity within our human condition that must be honestly faced.
   
• Mel Gibson's 'Passion' for Christ at christianitytoday.com
  [Gibson, commenting on the film:} "It will probably be savaged by critics," he told the 5,000 pastors at the Chicago screening. "But I've had my career, and I'm bored with it. I created a secular utopia for myself in Hollywood, but it was empty. There are more important things. Civilization was changed forever by Christ. Whether you're a believer or not, His death affects you."
   
• The Passion Toolbox
  A large and growing database offering multi-lingual, multi-format Christian resources to share your faith in Christ as it relates to the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion." These resources are provided by many of the top evangelical organizations you trust worldwide.
   
• "Reflections on the Passion" by Michael Cooper-White, President, LTSG
  If the overpowering hate-driven faces of the leaders and the masses engaged in violent murderous mayhem constitute one’s lingering images, the resulting theological anthropology does not point to a God who created in God’s own image and who embraced the goodness of creation prior to checkmating the forces of evil which crept onto the cosmological chessboard. Nevertheless, with all “The Passion’s” potential pitfalls, I walked out of Gettysburg’s Majestic Theater on the first Thursday in Lent having experienced some powerful proleptic moments of anticipating Lent’s last Thursday.
   
• The Passion of the Christ Outreach Resources

Some Questions to Keep in Mind as You Watch:
    "Lethal Suffering" (from Christianity Today)

• What do you think of the charges that the film is anti-Semitic? Even if you don't think it is intentionally anti-Semitic, is it potentially so? Should this change how a movie is filmed?
• What details in the movie are biblical? From which Gospel are they derived? What details are non-biblical or are dramatic enhancements to the story?
• What sort of understanding of the "historical Jesus" does the movie assume?
• What kind of atonement theory is functioning in the film? Why did Jesus die, not in the sense of who was responsible, but in terms of the purpose of his death? Think in terms like substitutionary, sacrificial, forensic, shame and honor, foolishness and wisdom, innocence and guilt.
• In connection with atonement theory, what understanding of God does the movie provide?
• Is this movie a movie about Jesus? Or is it intending to be an experience of Jesus?
• How might a Christian view this film in comparison to a non-Christian? To a Jewish person? To a Muslim?

And now for something completely different...

• "The Passion of the Christ: A Bible Critique and Alternative View" (Very negative review from a very conservative, anti-Roman Catholic perspective!?)
  Graven images are an abomination to God. Mel Gibson's movie is nothing but a two-hour stream of images graven in celluloid at the rate of 24 frames per second! ...
  Mel's image of Jesus is shameful! Mel gave him long hair, which Jesus never had! God condemned long hair on a man (I Cor 11:14)! Mel is perpetuating the Catholic myth of a longhaired, effeminate Jesus.
• "The Omission of the Christ" by Aaron J. Shuster
  It seems that Mel Gibson's' movie raises important epistemological and theological questions that must be answered... Either the Jews lived in Israel and are the indigenous people of that country or the Arabs did. Who's telling the truth? I don't know and certainly don't want to be the one to cast the first stone. All I know is a guy could get himself crucified for these kind of omissions.
• Forbes.com The Bible At The Box Office
  If you're fixing to adapt a movie from a previously published work, basing it on the best selling book of all time isn't a bad idea, and Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ proves that wisdom once again. Gibson's retelling of the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus of Nazareth was treated harshly by the critics, who called it gory and unrelenting, but it grossed $76.2 million at the box office over the weekend, and has taken in $117.5 million since it opened on Wednesday, according to Boxofficemojo.com.
• The Onion: Jesus Demands Creative Control Over Next Movie
  HOLLYWOOD, CA—After watching Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ Monday, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ announced that He will demand creative control over the next film based on His life. "I never should have given Mel Gibson so much license," said Christ, the Son of God.
• Jim Caviezel in the American Bible Society's "Resurrection" - a short video viewable online for free
• THE GOSPEL OF JOHN - A Major Motion Picture: Here's an alternative to "The Passion of the Christ" - a word for word rendition of the Gospel of John using the Good News translation
• AlterNet MAD DOG - What Would Jesus Buy by Barry Gottlieb
  There's been a lot of talk about Mel Gibson's new movie, The Passion of the Christ. The last thing it needs at this point is more free press, but let's get serious, I have a personal eternity to protect so I'd better get my two cents in, hope it helps sell a few tickets, and pray that Someone in Power remembers... So many choices, so little money. That's why you have to ask yourself, "What would Jesus buy?"
• NT Gateway Weblog - Mark Goodacre's blog has a long running collection of comments and reviews on the movie.
• The Passion of the Christ mistakes - bloopers (2004) - moviemistakes.com (Don't click on the popup; just wait for it to go away)

Mark Vitalis Hoffman
06.2004