JUDAISM AND THE JESUS FILM GENRE “Jesus’ life and message is subject to different interpretations and different focuses when made as a subject in film,” said Professor Adele Reinhartz in the second theological hour of the first semester. The session bore the title Jesus and Judaism in Jesus Film Genre and was held on July 11, 2012. Professor Adele Reinhartz is from the Department of Classics and Religious Studies of the University of Ottawa.
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APPRAISING EUROPEAN SECULARISM
EUROPEAN SECULARISM “What is the point of being Christian for many in Europe today? Believing, yes! Belonging, no! This is the problem faced by the Church in the traditionally Catholic countries,” asserted Anton Jamnik, DD, Auxiliary Bishop of Ljubljana, Slovenia; he presented the first LST theological hour entitled Challenges to Christian Believing in Today’s World. The conference was held on July 4, 2012 at the Cardinal Sin Center.
To illustrate her points better, Professor Reinhartz showed clips from famous Jesus films like King of Kings (1927), Godspell (1973), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Jesus of Montreal (1989), The Miracle Maker (2000), and The Passion of the Christ (2004). She noted that some scenes depict Jesus as a real Jew who is deeply rooted in Jewish customs and traditions; however, anti-Semitic messages are conveyed in some scenes.
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JUDAISM AND THE JESUS FILM GENRE
Bishop Jamnik said that traditional Catholic beliefs should be transformed to personal beliefs that must be shared with other people. He noted that Catholic countries have gone secular. He commented on the phenomenon in Europe wherein faith is confined to the church and is neglected in the home, workplace, and public life. He understands that this may also be true in other Catholic countries like the Philippines due to globalization. He enumerated three main challenges of faith in today’s secularist-liberalist world. The first is consumerism and materialism by which a person attempts to artificially create his version of paradise in this world. The second factor is ethical relativism by which religious norms are selected to gratify ego needs. The third and biggest problem is individualism. The Bishop observed: “The computer has been the only friend of some people; drugs and alcohol have become artificial ways to enter the spiritual…. The challenge for us is not to condemn these people, but to be close to them and understand them.”
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