Poetics & Christianity Ongoing Seminar

Comments on "The Passion"

-- There is an interesting comment from a searcher for "anti-semitic outbreaks" on Bill Park's post on The Passion (Scriptor.org - The Back Porch).

-- There is a very interesting comment from Carmen Sofia Brenes on The Passion (Scriptor.org - The Back Porch).

Rodolfo Papa

Last week we had the Rodolfo Papa's Seminar. A very interesting, engaged and audacious approach to the Christian origin for the pictorial perspective, according (I sumarize and maybe betray Rodolfo in saying this) to some historical views on Christian architectural tradition and the promoting popular and secular piety purposes. We are waiting for his provisional paper.

[Here: a new address containing some information on the past Poetica & Cristianesimo Convegno 2003.]

B. Ippolito: Il Commento al Libro di Giobbe di Tommaso d’Aquino.

Ecco qui il testo (provvisorio) della Relazione di Benedetto Ippolito, professore nell'Università degli Studi Roma Tre.

Peccato che quelli che non eravate nel Aula con noi durante la sua presentazione e discussione orale, non avete potuto apprezzare la passione oltre il sapere. C'era questo interessante 'sapore del sapere' che alle volte avviene nelle Aule universitarie.

Per scaricare il testo (in PDF) della Relazione: "Metafora e Teologia: il Commento al Libro di Giobbe di Tommaso d'Aquino"

Buona lettura. Benedetto aspetta commenti e domande.

Bill Park on "The Passion"

Bill Park is a member of the "P&C" Seminar. He was in Rome last April, participating in the Convegno.

Here is the Bill Park review The Passion of the Christ: Five Questions which will appear in the March Position Paper. As he said to John Wauck it may have some relevance for "Poetics and Christianity". Peter Robinson (Uncommon Knowledge, PBS) put the last question on a National Review Chat site and the response was overwhelmingly negative, in part even abusive.

[JJGN: I have numerate each one of the Five Questions, in order to facilitate the dialogue. By the way, the film soars beyond $200 million in his second weekend]:

The Passion of the Christ: Five Questions

1. Why all the hubbub?

In all my years of film going, I do not recall any movie that has caused such a hubbub. Gone with the Wind (1939) comes to mind, but all the hype about that movie centered on two questions: who would play Scarlet O’Hara; and can a huge best selling novel be successfully translated onto the screen? Needless to say, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ raises more serious questions. It's curious that earlier Hollywood versions of the Gospels, King of Kings (1927 and 1961) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), caused no such outcries. Admittedly, Gibson's treatment is more graphic and horrifying than anything done previously, but since in the chorus of detractors one hears many secular voices, one suspects the real offence is Christianity itself. In an age in which among the educated elite, tolerance and inclusion stand as the only virtues, in which Christians are regarded as bigots and Christianity oppressive, and in which what religion exists tends toward New Age spirituality, Gibson’s in your face assertion of a Christian perspective can only scandalize. Gibson is not far from St. Paul when he claimed, "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and the Greeks foolishness."

Alejandro Llano on René Girard

We had today a very interesting Seminar with Alejandro Llano. He talked to us on "René Girard: ciencia y mitología del deseo, la violencia y el sacrificio" (or on "La antropología de la religión según René Girard", as the actual paper presented by Alejandro is named). Then, we had a enlighting Q&A 30 minutes time.

Here you can find the first version of the text (in .PDF format):Download file . Alejandro is open to answer all the questions or comments coming from us.