Mr. Scorsese & Christianity

We have been watching the five-part Apple TV series about revered film-maker Martin Scorsese. It seems that anybody who is anybody in the motion picture world is in awe of his lifetime contribution to the industry and story-telling on the big screen. We have seen a few Scorsese dramas and documentaries but a lot of his work is known for violence, for which we have limited tolerance especially as we age. 

He is a charismatic and candid figure in a quiet way, admitting to his own demons perhaps born in the raw Italian-American neighbourhood of his youth in New York City. The series has reminded me that Scorsese began studies for the priesthood but quickly realized he wasn't good at it. It seems that he has addressed the demons and his spiritual longing in various films including a documentary series called Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints. I think that once upon a time I blogged about his historical drama, Silence, about the travails of Portugese missionaries in Japan. It is another film with lots of violence that explores spiritual themes. 

Mr. Scorsese also explores the world-wide response to his film The Last Temptation of Christ, inspired by the Nikos Kazantzakis novel of the same name. The last temptation in the novel and film was for Jesus to forego death on the cross for the sake of his love for Mary Magdalene. When Scorsese pitched the film the question was why he would want to make such a controversial picture and his answer was that he wanted to get to know Jesus better. If Jesus was both human and divine he must have experienced human emotions, desires, temptations. This was an uncomfortable incarnation rather than a sanitized one.

Scorsese commented at the time: 

The beauty of Kazantzakis' concept is that Jesus has to put up with everything we go through, all the doubts and fears and anger. He made me feel like he's sinning—but he's not sinning, he’s just human. As well as divine. And he has to deal with all this double, triple guilt on the cross.

While this is honest theological exploration both the novel and the film were condemned by the Roman Catholic church and irate Christians everywhere, most of whom had not read or seen them. Why is it that people who would never watch certain films are insistent that no one else does either? You can see above that 25,000 gathered for one protest. 

The Last Temptation was banned in many communities and countries and the critics were certain that Scorsese, now 83,  was headed for hell, but he doesn't seem overly worried by the prospect. 

We have a couple more episodes to go so it will be interesting to see if there is any more God-talk from Mr. Scorsese. 

We are not far from Christmas, our Christian celebration of the Incarnation, although the safer part where a baby is born. Yet with the cradle there is always the foreshadowing of the cross and the challenging questions and answers that come with our God-with-Us faith.