9.09.2004
A man like men he had made
The Passion of the Christ is still making news. The Evangelical Outpost updates the phenomenon. "[I]t appears on track to take the title in the categories of best-selling independent film, R-rated film, and non-English language film as well. No doubt many are perplexed by this phenomenon."
No surprise here.
But as Dorothy Sayers wrote in “The Greatest Drama Ever Staged”, the real tale is “the story of the time when God was the underdog and got beaten when he submitted to the conditions he had laid down and became a man like men he had made, and the men he had made broke and killed him.”
This is the dogma we find so dull – this terrifying drama of which God is the victim and hero…If this is dull, then what, in heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting?...The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being a bore. On the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him meek and mild and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and old ladies.
No surprise here.
But as Dorothy Sayers wrote in “The Greatest Drama Ever Staged”, the real tale is “the story of the time when God was the underdog and got beaten when he submitted to the conditions he had laid down and became a man like men he had made, and the men he had made broke and killed him.”
This is the dogma we find so dull – this terrifying drama of which God is the victim and hero…If this is dull, then what, in heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting?...The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being a bore. On the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him meek and mild and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and old ladies.
// posted by HunterByrd @ 4:24 AM 
