This page was created on March 1, 2004
This page was last updated on January 4, 2005

Here we are, talking about The Passion again -- with reason. It's simply the most significant film event of the year, possibly of the decade, possibly of the millennium. As Barbara Nicolosi muses, the film leapt out of nowhere, a vision of True Reality in a wasteland of death culture. In an image that speaks particularly to cradle Catholics, she writes,

After forty years in the Catholic Church (and, Lord knows, four hundred years in Protestantism) of focused iconoclasm and the exaltation of sterility and even ugliness, from where does this lush imaging of our most defining story come? It's like . some Bishop showed up in your local diocese and then, well, built Notre Dame.⁵

One remarkable thing about The Passion is that it is in some ways very "Catholic"; but it also transcends the label to become truly catholic -- that is, universal. Consider that the two huge stories this month in film are The Passion and The Return of the King. And consider that both have been embraced by evangelical Protestants. Mel Gibson and J. R. R. Tolkien, both working from the Catholic tradition, have produced art which is deeply sensual, focused on the things of this world: blood, bodies, humanity, beauty. Why is Catholic-influenced art connecting with Protestant audiences, and why now?

A few weeks ago, my husband and I had dinner with some young Mormon missionaries, and we spent a pleasant evening trying to explain ourselves to one another. I tried to clarify the shades of difference between Mormonism, some brands of Protestantism, and Catholicism by saying, "In general, Catholicism believes goodness is a lot stronger and more effective than it is generally assumed to be." One way this manifests itself is that Catholics are generally less suspicious of things that flatter the eye, stir the emotions, and transform the landscape, the person, and the home with beauty.

Catholics throughout the ages have happily immersed themselves in whatever their human passions have directed them -- everything from creating obscure imaginary languages to driving fourteen-wheelers, playing billiards, and writing sonnets. They've done all these things without pondering if their time would have been better spent on reading the Scriptures or preaching to the ungodly. In Catholicism, there's not a clear separation between the sacred and the profane -- we just take the profane, baptize it, and then consider it sacred.

Yes, we're pretty reckless about making things sacred. Seven sacraments instead of two or three. And a whole gamut of sacramentals, from holy water to holy cards to holy relics. I remember these complexities scaring my Mennonite friends who weren't sure if they could even properly call the actual pages of the Bible "holy" (I did, without question).

But beyond the strict theological categories of sacrament and sacramental, we also believe a person's whole life and work should be a sacrament -- a channel of grace sanctifying the world around him or her. So of course I agree fully with Pastor Mike about sanctifying the everyday actions of our lives, and he puts it very well. And the typical Catholic way of doing it includes a confidence that, once we've oriented ourselves towards Christ, we feel more free to actually forget about being a sacrament. After all, water doesn't think about being water. It just flows.

Our faith and life were meant to blend together so seamlessly that from the outside, we might not even seem overtly Christian. Inside, of course, all believers need to examine their consciences and read their hearts to ensure they're still on target. But we can trust that God's doing His part, and we can just do ours. So as we ponder the purpose for Mel Gibson's life and the fruit of his labor, let's remember that God wants us to focus on more than just things that are overtly "spiritual." After all, God first led Mel Gibson to immerse himself in learning the craft of film -- creating epic adventures like "Braveheart."

In other words, it's okay to jump into life. Don't be afraid of the blood, the passion, the bodily, the familial, the feminine, the earthly -- He wasn't. After all, He created it! And then He became one with it!

So let go. And contemplate The Passion again, without worrying about whether or not this focus on a "movie" will distract you from "the real Thing." And if we're lucky, by Holy Week the controversy will have died down.

I can't really say I agree or disagree with Mike and Regina -- at this point I am experiencing a rather severe case of "hype fatigue," and am fairly certain that joining in the controversy over The Passion will have negative consequences regarding my intellectual health. So rather than address the Passion controversy specifically, I'd like to pose a broader question -- which is, where did this cultural appetite for controversy come from? And just to be clear, I'm not proposing any answers.

But it does seem to me that the media has upped the ante (valid or not) until we are interested in nothing without controversy or some kind of 'hook.' We're more likely to flock to the theater or the newspaper or CNN if the content is scandalous, scary, provocative, or has the potential to seriously affect my lifestyle. Why? It's as if without a hook, the media won't be able to disseminate their message. Are they legitimately afraid, for instance, that we won't pay attention to the presidential political race without the increasingly negative anti-other-guy campaigning?

Or more to the point: are they right in thinking that we won't pay attention to articles about purpose and embracing life -- without lead-ins about Janet Jackson's breasts and Mel Gibson's 'best'?

Granted, it's a tough agenda After Eden has set for itself: "dredging gold from the gutter." And it does indeed seem that we have to go down into the gutter if we want to get the gold out of it. Sometimes, though -- maybe a lot of the time -- I just end up feeling soiled, if somewhat enriched.

Is there another option?

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of Christianity as "the ministry of reconciliation."⁶ By this, he means that the central story of the faith is the reconciliation of Man to God through the blood of His Son, Jesus. Christianity, then, is the ministry of reconciliation because all who claim the name of Christ are ministers -- literally, servants in the Greek -- of God's specific conciliatory purpose.

But Christianity is not only the ministry of reconciliation -- it is the ministry of all things godly. One of the other theological terms applied to the act of Jesus' death on the cross is redemption. In conceiving Hollywood Jesus, David Bruce understood that Christianity is also the ministry of redemption -- and in particular, it is the redemptive hope for our culture: not through legislation, stone-throwing or critical negativity, but through showing us the godly things already embedded in our culture. For God reveals Himself through all that He has created, even the things that we may not particularly like.

After Eden is dedicated to this redemptive vision. We believe, as G.K. Chesteron put it, that "humanity is not incidentally engaged, but eternally and systematically engaged, in throwing gold into the gutter and diamonds into the sea."⁷ That's not a reality we endorse. We'd like to help salvage the gold from the gutter, and rescue the diamonds from the sea.

Mike Gunn is a pastor at Harambee Church in Tukwila, Washington, and was cofounder of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

Regina Doman is a writer, the author of the young adult novel The Shadow of the Bear and other modern stories based on fairy tales; she was also an editor for the late journal Caelum et Terra.

Editor Greg Wright is a writer and ordained minister of the dramatic arts. He is a contributing editor for Hollywood Jesus, and is author of Tolkien in Perspective: Sifting the Gold from the Glitter.

Editor Jenn Wright is a writer with degrees in literature and theology. She will be co-writing the Narnia coverage for Hollywood Jesus, which will be debuting the summer of 2004 in anticipation of the first movie's 2005 release.

The Devil's Advocate is a composite personality of our consultants and editorial staff. He may look like someone you know -- and probably thinks like a lot of them.

Tarkington
On Dignified Behavior

Every new generation evolves out of its own experience a theory that all generations before it were 'frustrated' by the false dignity of their manners. Youth is always rather self-congratulatory about its own wildness and its consequent freedom from previous interfering hypocrisies...¹

Hilary Putnam
On Controversy

No sane person should believe that something is 'subjective' merely because it cannot be settled beyond controversy.²

Mailer
On Art and Morality

The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate, the moral consciousness of people.³

Nietzsche
On Purpose

When I contemplated purpose I also contemplated chance and foolishness.⁴

Chesterton
On Perception

It is a strange thing that many truly spiritual men... have actually spent some hours in speculating upon the precise location of the Garden of Eden. Most probably we are in Eden still. It is only our eyes that have changed.⁸