The Passion in Scripture and Cinema: Teaching Critical Attention To Gender

In the months after its premiere, Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was subjected to intense critical scrutiny by biblical scholars and theologians. This critical analysis focused on the historicity of its portrayal of events; its fidelity to the Gospels; its anti-Semitism; its theology; and its violent assault upon the audience’s senses. To date little attention has been paid to the gender constructs embedded in the film. This project aims to rectify that inattention by focusing squarely upon the film’s gender constructs and to do so by use of critical theories as "lenses"by which to see what might otherwise not be seen. Those "lenses" include triangulation in family systems theory; anthropological theory on sacrifice; feminist theories of representation and the gaze. By use of these lenses this paper surfaces and "deconstructs" the gender constructs in Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, with particular attention to Mother Mary and Satan. These theoretical lenses enable viewers to recognize the complicity of gender and sacrifice in the theological vision that Gibson scripts for viewers. The final sections consists of reflection on the usefulness of cinema for teaching students critical attention to gender.