Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  The Passion of the Christ       Director   Mel Gibson Writers   Benedict Fitzgerald   & Mel Gibson Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton WARNING-- The Film is violent and not suitable for all audiences. The Passion of Christ is a graphic film that follows a composite story line of Jesus’ final hours that includes some extrabiblical traditions and artistic license. The opening of the film is set in Gethsemane where Jesus is praying, and his disciples are asleep. Throughout the film, the characters speak Latin or Aramaic. The film background explains that the Aramaic is a Syrian version. Judas has taken 30 pieces of silver from the Temple leaders in Jerusalem. Judas identifies Jesus with the infamous betrayal kiss. Jesus is arrested. Peter attempts a defence by cutting off a guard’s ear, but Jesus insists on putting down the sword and heals the man’s ear. John runs off to tell Jesus’ mother Mary and Mary Magdalene about the arre...

LIVING WELL AND  DYING FAITHFULLY:  CHRISTIAN PRACTICES FOR     END-OF-LIFE CARE   Edited By      John Swinton       & Richard Payne    Reviewed by       Geoffrey W. Sutton “Dying is a spiritual event with medical implications,” opined Gwen London, the former director of the Institute on Care at the End of Life at Duke University (xv).  I am reminded of a story about a Christian health care professional who was glad to be assigned to a pediatric ward from a geriatric ward where elderly patients were dying without having faith in Christ. She believed that God would save children from eternal damnation were they to die. Clearly, religious faith is a significant part of the identity of many people on earth. Most, if not all, religions imbue life and death with meaning. The brute fact of death has been widely studied in psychological science--especially in the ...