{"id":458,"date":"2008-02-28T13:05:33","date_gmt":"2008-02-28T13:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html"},"modified":"2008-02-28T13:05:33","modified_gmt":"2008-02-28T13:05:33","slug":"another-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html","title":{"rendered":"Another Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"

BBC television is airing a new mini-series version of the Passion, starting on Palm Sunday.<\/a>
\nThe BBC’s website for the series is here. <\/a>
\n(It would be great if BBC America were also showing it, but in the past, they’ve not aired series or programs simultaneously with the home network – like that Monastery <\/em>program from a couple of years ago. Too bad.)
\nThere’s a video up with comments from those involved in the production. I’d look forward to watching it (if I could), even though those involved take predictable pains to assure any potential viewers that, of course, the series is about anything you want it to be. Which is fine, and I can understand the reasons for making that point. One thing struck me, though. When I read or, in this case, listen to secular appreciations of the “Jesus story,” one theme that’s hardly ever mentioned these days – and in the comments for The Passion<\/em>\u00a0 – is the theme of the unjust execution of an innocent man.
\nI wonder why that is. I hasten to add, I don’t wonder that in a cloud of snarkiness. I really do wonder.
\nI also think that the assertions that the story of Jesus’ execution have an intrisic appeal apart from any Christian claims about him have their limit. There have been millions of individuals executed – many of them (yes) unjustly – through history.
\nWhy the continued “interest” in this one? Can it really be so easily separated from the big picture and what followed?
\nAnyway, it looks good. For more on this and other related works, keep up with the Bible Film Blog <\/a>– a very good blog out of England somewhere.\u00a0 Also keep your eye on Biblical scholar Mark Goodacre’s New Testament Gateway blog <\/a>– he provided a background essay that’s on the BBC’s site.
\nAnd here – this is really interesting, via Peter Chattaway:<\/a>
\n(even though the Variety writer he quotes\u00a0tells us that the movie really isn’t very good)<\/p>\n

So, do you think there’s any chance Mel Gibson’s film, which was based in part on the visions of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, inspired this other new movie<\/font><\/a>? It’s based on a novel<\/font><\/a> that came out two years ago, and for all I know the novel may have been in the works when Gibson was still making his film, but certainly the success of Gibson’s film must have made the subject matter more appealing to whoever ended up financing this movie.
\nAt any rate, here’s what Eddie Cockrell<\/font><\/a> of Variety<\/i> has to say about it:<\/p>\n

A double-edged 1970s vibe permeates “The Pledge,” a dramatization of a real-life 1818 rural encounter between a stigmatic nun and the devout writer sent to document her beliefs in a book that eventually became the inspiration for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” That footnote may gain the pic fest invites, with smallscreen sales and faith-driven ancillary to follow.
\n“Reformed libertines are usually boring,” someone observes of philistine-turned-devout-Catholic Clemens Brentano (Misel Maticevic). Poet has been dispatched to westernmost Germany to transcribe ecstatic visions of Christ’s life by Anna Katharina Emmerich, who refers to him as “Pilgrim.” Their encounter proves tempestuous. Stilted delivery style may have been deliberate on the part of helmer Dominik Graf, but the strategy wears thin over time. Tech package is more successfully evocative of 1970s stylistic flourishes, from lenser Michael Wiesweg’s slow zooms to the weird electronic score by Sven Rossenbach and Florian van Volxem, half of experimental band “Victory of the Better Man.” Pic was shot entirely in the North Rhine-Westphalia region. (Berlin fest<\/font><\/a> documentation lists the title as “The Vow,” though “The Pledge” is what appears on the print).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC television is airing a new mini-series version of the Passion, starting on Palm Sunday. The BBC’s website for the series is here. (It would be great if BBC America were also showing it, but in the past, they’ve not aired series or programs simultaneously with the home network – like that Monastery program from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAnother Passion - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Another Passion - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BBC television is airing a new mini-series version of the Passion, starting on Palm Sunday. The BBC’s website for the series is here. (It would be great if BBC America were also showing it, but in the past, they’ve not aired series or programs simultaneously with the home network – like that Monastery program from…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-28T13:05:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Another Passion - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Another Passion - Via Media","og_description":"BBC television is airing a new mini-series version of the Passion, starting on Palm Sunday. The BBC’s website for the series is here. (It would be great if BBC America were also showing it, but in the past, they’ve not aired series or programs simultaneously with the home network – like that Monastery program from…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2008-02-28T13:05:33+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html","name":"Another Passion - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-02-28T13:05:33+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-28T13:05:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/another-passion.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Another Passion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}