The passion of Jesus Christ seems to have fascinated people throughout the centuries. It has been re-enacted in various ways. One thinks of the countless passion-plays or the passion by famous composers like Bach. In the 20th century, the cinema became the main venue for re-enactments of the passion. Just to mention a few classics: Nicklas Ray’s “King of Kings” (1961), Pasolini’s “The Gospel According to Matthew” (1964), “Jesus Christ Superstar” (1972), Monty Pythons “Life of Brian (1976), and Martin Scorsese’s “Last Temptation of Christ” (1988). They all produced their own version of the life and death of Jesus, many of them causing debate. So, lately, did Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
This paper aims to contribute to that debate and add a new dimension to the discussion: first by criticizing Gibson’s version of the passion, and then by confronting it with the rituals of self-flagellation and crucifixion in the Philippines. I shall thereby elaborate two very different ways of representing the suffering of Jesus Christ.
Representations of Suffering. Confronting Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Rituals of Self-Flagellation and Crucifixion in the Philippines
JVF Conference Papers
