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I watched on Good Morning America this morning a clip on how this movie and other decent TV shows Joan of Arcadia and Touched by an Angel are gaining popularity and sending a message to the media that America wants cleaner, more wholesome shows to watch. We are sick of the filth! So it looks like the media is going to advocate this trend (what they called it) because the public wants more hopeful things to watch. So hopefully things will take a turn around for the better and reverence will be a trend (their word) that will last for a long time.

Update: I heard an Sean Hannity interview with Mel Gibson last night where Gibson mentioned his interest in making the Maccabees into a movie. Personally, I think that's a great selection.

God bless,
Jay

Hello all;

Such WONDERFUL news about the Passion!! Although the idea of doing a film based on Maccabees would be great, I almost wish Gibson would do a 'sequel' on the Passion of the Christ...i.e.; a follow-up to the Resurrection, and the post-Resurrection details in the Gospels, as well as parts of the Acts of the Apostles and the early Church and her fathers. Unfortunately, I felt the Resurrection was down-played in the 'Passion' (albeit, I know the film was about Christ's Passion and not His Resurrection, but as the Resurrection is the pivotal point in our faith, I felt it deserved more in the film...) What a wonderful tool for evangelization would be a film about the Early Church, and her focus on the Eucharist!!

God bless you all,
Nickie.

2Ti 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2Ti 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
2Ti 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Good one, Mark. We Catholics have such itching ears to hear how OUR sins caused such brutal torture to be inflicted on our Lord Jesus Christ. We just LOVE to see how our own leaders, including the emminent first pope, Peter, were sinful fallen men who betrayed our Lord to such a degree that they did not even stand by Him at the foot of the Cross. And we revel in acknowledging that we are no less guilty and fallen.

Mark, I would really recommend that you poke around this site and check out what Catholics really believe. Our Church sticks to the Gospel as it has been preached for 2000 years. That includes a male only clergy, a prohibition on the use of contraception, and the prohibition of divorce. None of those things is what our modern culture's itching ears want to hear. Yet Protestant denominations have fallen off the boat on each of them. It is you who have been bamboozled, my friend. The Church that Christ founded has always stayed true to the fundamental message of the Gospel: Christ crucified for our salvation. Seriously, check out our archives.

In Christ,
Dave

Hey folks!

For those of you with high internet cable hook-ups, go to the URL below, and click on the small black video camera icon – farthest to the left (left of “300k”).

You will get to watch & hear a panel discussion of Gibson’s Passion by a few important biblical scholars – including a fellow directly involved with the project. One of the scholars – to my knowledge – is Jewish (AJ Levine).

I think it of the utmost importance for folks to begin to understand why this movie has caused so much division – that the negative responses to it are not (all) driven by ignorance, let alone malevolent intent against the Gospel of Jesus Messiah.

Anyhow…enjoy! But most of all...THINK!!!

http://www.yale.edu/divinity/video/moltmann.htm

Peace!

Jack,

Multmann, smultmann...I have a hard time understanding this man.

It should raise a "red flag" that Multmann is called...

"a theologian's theologian...[who] has given us two of North America's leading feminist theologians, Nancy Bedford and Joy McDougal(?)...[he] is a theologian for the world...he speaks of a God who holds the life of an Iraqi fighter as "she" hold the dying words of an Iowa farmer."

To each his own I guess...but come on...

In Christ,
Joe

Joe,

Your response has caught me off-guard, or better completely unsuspecting.

Your disdain for my "poster theologian" is grounded in your own lack of actually reading (any?) of his theology. One should refrain from criticizing what one is not even remotely familiar with. Your exuberance (smultmann! lol!) to ridicule should be a point of embarrassment! Joe, unless you've bothered to read anything Moltmann has written (at least Theology of Hope & Coming of God), then you should keep quiet. I get this kind of reaction from first-semester Protestant-evangelical freshman whenever anything remotely Catholic comes up in the classroom!

There is a long line of Catholic conservatives, driven by fear, I think, who without any knowledge (i.e. reading the theology they criticize), rely on name-calling as an excuse NOT to actually engage important theologians - like Barth, Brunner, Bloch, and Moltmann. On the other hand, there have been/are Catholic theologians who have critically & respectifully (!) engaged such Protestant theologians - von Balthasar with Barth, Ratzinger with Moltmann, as just two examples - in such a way as to model for us all a constructive dialogue (at least!) that is possible.

Joe, are you so afraid of Moltmann - are your Catholic foundations so frail? - that you cannot even engage his work, and so must instead resort to petty name-calling? I find it unthinkable Joseph, that you would be so quick to criticize what you do not even remotley know!

Joe, I suspect your Catholic foundations can stand Moltmann! If they cannot, what are they grounded in? And if you're not careful (i.e too fearful about it), you might actually learn something from Moltmann - even while disagreeing with most of what he says. And if you're really interested in approaching his work without any predisposed disdain (he who has ears to hear, let him hear!), God may actually use Moltmann to renew your faith in the Holy Catholic Church - as was my experience.

Anyhow, the little black camera icon on the far left of the page actually does link to a discussion about Gibson's Passion. Did you actually click on the correct icon Joe? I accidentally did this and so "discovered" the Passion discussion (which I think is mistakenly on that particular page of Yale's website).

Promoting Moltmann? His work speaks for itself.

And, by the way, I've heard John Paul II described as a "theologian's theologian" and as a theologian for the world entire!! And I think that is right on target!

Jack

Joe,

In light of our exchange above, you should be awaiting - as am I - with abated breath for the book THE END OF TIME?: PROVOCATION OF TALKING ABOUT GOD - to be released sometime in early 2005. It is apparently a "report" of sorts, of a constructive and respectful theological discussion between - JB Metz, Eveline Goodman-Thau (a Jew!), Ratzinger, Moltmann, and others.

Blessings!

Jack,

It isn't a matter of fear or disdain that keeps "conservative" thinkers away from Protestant theologians, it is the basis of those theologians' reasoning and the school of their theology. You forget that I have read some Moltmann...you loaned me a book of his (I have forgotten the title) long ago...

Jack, for a Catholic to have a firm understanding of theology, as God intended it, they need not ever read a theologian who is not Catholic. Yes, maybe a Protestant theologian has some wisdom of this or that detail or maybe they even understand the "big picture" on things like the Trinity, the Incarnation, etc., but they DO NOT hold to the fullness of truth, that can only be found within Catholicism. In addition to that, as "educated and inspired" theologians they presist to remain outside of the Church, this is an even more disturbing fact, for true theology leads to the fullness of truth, which is Jesus Christ and His Church. So it really becomes a matter of need. I need to understand and study sound Catholic theology. I spent about a year in the seminary, around some brillant theologians, none of whom every encouraged us to be well read in any Protestant theologians. I am unaware of any documents from our Holy Father or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith encouraging us to do so either.

So what you want to categorize as fear or disdain, I will categorize as a determination to remain faithful in both thought and belief to the Catholic Church and a desire to know, theologically speaking, only that which she teaches.

In Christ,
Joe

Well Joseph,

I understand your perspective, though I disagree with it whole heartedly. I am glad that important Catholic theologians like von Balthasar and Ratzinger do not - at least in doing their own work - hold your opinion on this matter.

Anyhow, I suggest then, that you read von Balthasar's book THE THEOLOGY OF KARL BARTH (Ignatius Press). It is an extraordinary assessment of Barth's theology by a Catholic who has decided that (in this case) Barth's theology is relevant and important.

On a similar note, I am always pleased and sometimes surprised how Ratzinger is often appealing to Barth and Moltmann while doing his theological work - both to disagree, and to agree.

It is always refreshing and hope-full.

Peace!

Jack,

I understand that "serious" theologians, like Ratzinger and von Balthasar, study the theologies of other Christian denominations...in a certain sense it is necessary...but, both of these men were/are some of the best theologians in the Church and in the world, they are extremely well-read and deeply rooted in the theology of the Catholic Church, the average Catholic isn't. It is much more important for the average Catholic to read books like the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the encyclicals and apostolic letters of Pope John Paul II (even these can be difficult reads at times), the writings of Scott Hahn, Peter Kreeft, Fr. John Hardon, and the likes, who write theology that is geared toward and readable for the average Catholic.

I read and study Ratzinger and von Balthasar, neither are what I would call an "easy read", they both require a solid foundation in Catholic theological thought, built on the Tradition of the Church down through the ages.

As a novice theologian, I believe it is much more valuable for me to spend my time attempting to read Catholic writers like St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas More, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, Belloc, St. Therese, De Lubac, Pieper, von Balthasar, Hahn, Kreeft, Ratzinger, and Pope John Paul II than it is to seek out Protestant theologians. These Catholic theologians are grounded in the theological tradition of the Church and provide me with a sound foundation and a necessary understanding of genuine theology. Again, it is a matter of need.

In Christ,
Joe

Well said Joe!

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.

Grace & Peace,
Jack

Just for the sake of it, and in case someone reads this: it's Nov. 10, 2005 AND THE PASSION IS STILL THE MOST SOLD "R" FILM IN HISTORY. Almost one year after the last comment :)

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