No story is more central to Western culture than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, and none better demonstrates the power of representation in shaping religious faith and practice. The incidence of Passion imagery in diverse media is fundamental to the histories of Christian piety, church politics, and art in European and American societies. At the same time, the visualization and reenactment of Christ’s suffering has for centuries been the principal engine generating popular perceptions of Jews and Judaism. The provocative essays collected here, written by eminent scholars with an eye toward the nonspecialist reader, broadly survey the depiction and dramatization of the Passion and consider the significance of this representational focus for both Christians and Jews. This anthology provides a unique, multifaceted overview of a subject of enduring importance in today’s religiously pluralistic societies.
Contributors include Robin Blaetz, Stephen Campbell, Jody Enders, Christopher Fuller, James Marrow, Walter Melion, David Morgan, David Nirenberg, Adele Reinhartz, Miri Rubin, Lisa Saltzman, and Marc Saperstein.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Marcia Kupfer
Part One: Narrative Transformations, Pictorial Elaborations
1. Inventing the Passion in the Late Middle Ages
James H. Marrow
2. The Passion of Mary: The Virgin and the Jews in Medieval Culture
Miri Rubin
3. The Conflicted Representation of Judaism in Italian Renaissance Images of Christ’s Life and Passion
Stephen J. Campbell
4. Ex libera meditatione: Visualizing the Sacrificial Christ in Jerónimo Nadal’s Annotations and Meditations on the Gospels
Walter S. Melion
Part Two: Popular Spectacle, Mass Consumption
5. Coups de Théâtre and the Passion for Vengeance
Jody Enders
6. Images of the Passion and the History of Protestant Visual Piety in America
David Morgan
7. Realizing the Passion on Screen
Robin Blaetz
8. Jesus of Hollywood
Adele Reinhartz
9. Two Thousand Years of Storytelling About Jesus: How Faithful Is Pasolini’s Gospel to Matthew’s Gospel?
Christopher Fuller
Part Three: Jewish Perspectives
10. Jewish Responses to the Passion Narratives
Marc Saperstein
11. Barnett Newman’s Passion
Lisa Saltzman
Epilogue: A Brief History of Jewish Enmity
David Nirenberg
Notes
Index
“After reading this powerful collection of essays that so admirably capture one side of the Passion narrative—its images and resulting horror—the reviewer can only hope for a future collection generated by this one that seeks to explore the positive spirituality generated by the Passion and its depiction.”
