The Greatest Story Ever Told
Skip Worden
I am currently a scholar in residence at Harvard. My areas include philosophy (historical moral, religious, political and economic thought), theology (Christian ethics), and political theory, with applications to film.
Among the classic biblically-based films out of Hollywood, and the first to show Jesus’ face,?The Greatest Story Ever Told ?(1965) is a highly idealized rather than realistic depiction of the Gospel story. Only when Jesus is on the cross does emotion show on Jesus’ visage; even the horrendous suffering from the torture leading up to the crucifixion is not shown. The Christology is thus idealized, with Jesus’ human nature impacting his human nature even though the two natures are theologically distinct. As the first film that dared to show Jesus’ face, it could be that depicting Jesus’ human nature in its fullness, absent sin, would be too much for a film to show. The main drawback in depicting Jesus in highly idealized terms is that it may be difficult for Christians to relate to Jesus in carrying their own proverbial crosses in this fallen world. The main upside is that the theological point that the Incarnation is of the divine Logos, which is the aspect of God that created the world, is highlighted. Drawing on David Hume, I submit that transcending (rather than denying) the anthropomorphic “God made flesh” to embrace God as Logos—God’s word that creates—more fully captures the insight of Pseudo-Dionysius, a sixth-century theologian, that God goes beyond the limits of human cognition, perception, and emotions.
The full essay is at "The Greatest Story Ever Told ."