Lesson Plans The Last Temptation of Christ
This book isn't just a collection of quick one-liners generated to confirm Christian prejudices and make a fast profit. This book will teach you how to understand someone who believes differently than you do, and how to communicate the gospel to them reasonably and truthfully. The worst part of the movie and also the novel is not Jesus having sex with Mary Magdalene, which is presented as a satanic temptation in the form of a dream.
The world would like Christians to admit that this is the worst scene as proof that Christians are afraid of sex and think the body is something dirty. This diverts attention away from the two basic assumptions of both movie and book, which together totally reject the Bible and Christianity. The first assumption is that there is no final distinction between good and evil, between God and man, between matter and spirit. This panentheism God is to the world what the soul is to the body directly contradicts the biblical worldview and filters every scene, every line, every statement of The Last Temptation of Christ.
The second assumption is that there are no objective absolutes. What's true for you might not be true for me. Kazantzakis' story about Jesus is just as valid as the apostles'. This assumption undermines the reliability and historicity of the New Testament. If believed, it also renders any complaint, protest, or argument against The Last Temptation powerless.
The Last Temptation of Christ Multiple Choice Test Questions
Some of the fault is ours as Christians. For too many years we have withdrawn from involvement as salt in the world, and for too long we have failed to plan ahead, confident that at any moment we would be able to escape this earthly purgatory with the momentarily expected Second Coming. Blame lies with the secular world, too. The rise of secular humanism, the New Age Movement, and relativism have all contributed to a world hostile to the foundations of Christianity.
Challenges such as The Last Temptation of Christ indicate that we are headed more and more swiftly past open ridicule and discrimination toward oppression, persecution, and eventual ostracization from society. But it's not too late. We don't have to give up. The Bible has given us a blueprint for meeting the challenges of the world with the sure Word of God. It is time for Christians to wake up; look at the inheritance we surrendered without a murmur over the last several decades; understand how we have been manipulated; and "put on the whole armor of God," so that we can stand against "the wiles of the devil" and "withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" Ephesians 6: Chapter One The Compromise of Christ.
I'm afraid of everything. I don't ever tell the truth--I don't have the courage! When I see a woman, I blush, and look away. I want to, but I don't dare! I don't steal, I don't fight, don't kill--not because I don't want to, but because I'm afraid. I want to rebel against you, against everything, against God! You want to know who my mother and father are? Want to know who my God is? You look inside me and that's all you find Lucifer is inside of me But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?
I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me" recorded by the Apostle John. Millions of people see no contradiction between these two Jesuses. Nikos Kazantzakis, author of the book, said, reconciling his Jesus with the biblical one, "Everything you write is correct, but the opposite is also correct. For the creator, just and unjust--good and evil--god and devil--no longer exist.
Cutting through the rhetoric, the public relations jargon, the camouflage vocabulary, isn't hard once we understand that these people including many religious leaders believe in a different God, world, ethic, man, and Christ than what the Bible clearly reveals. God is not separate from his creation, but, in some sense, is his creation. The world of matter is primitive, immature, and is constantly struggling toward spirit.
There is no absolute right or wrong, but ethics are determined by one's own inner inclination. Man is the pinnacle of evolution into spirit--man becoming God, and God always becoming more God. Jesus realized the spirit which is within all of us and which is leading the evolution of the universe into the realm of the spirit as God. No wonder, then, that people who believe this don't understand why Christians were upset originally with the novel and now protest the movie.
What does it matter, they wonder, if the young Jesus sinned and made mistakes? What matters is that he participated in the grand struggle, and emerged, victorious, spiritual, and "God" at the end. This book is the result of hundreds of hours of research, interviewing, reading, and viewing. We read the novel of The Last Temptation of Christ months before the movie was released.
We did careful research on the beliefs of both Kazantzakis and Scorsese. We viewed the movie twice and made a careful record of the dialogue. We were involved behind the scenes in many of the steps taken in protest, especially involving the Southern California protests.
We interviewed protesters, picketers, and movie goers.
Every Christian's Journey Toward Eternity…
In the late s we had led protests against the movie The Passover Plot, and we learned from that experience the importance of the media perception of this controversy, so we concentrated on that area in our own work concerning protesting The Last Temptation. We watched the media.
How did news broadcasts portray the protesters? How did talk show hosts treat the dissenting evangelical leaders? We viewed video tapes of almost every network, syndicated, and cable news treatment of the controversy; every national and Southern California talk show which featured it; and all of the clips, promotions, and Scorsese interviews supplied by Universal. We listened to hours worth of secular talk radio conversation on The Last Temptation of Christ, and also reviewed Christian media coverage.
We talked with the media, and with the principal evangelical leaders involved in the Southern California protests. We analyzed the protests and the critical statements. As an evangelical community, how effective was our protest? What could we have done differently to improve our image and gain better success?
How can we plan better for the future and make a better impact next time? Our media research provided answers to all of these questions. Let's review what happened. The author of Zorba the Greek and other works quickly found himself on trial for heresy before the Greek Orthodox Church of which he was a nominal member , and his new novel was placed on the Roman Catholic list of forbidden books.
But this didn't discourage Kazantzakis. His struggle with the Church was symbolic of the grand Nietzschian struggle in which universe begets man, and man begets God. He responded to the Orthodox leaders, "May your conscience be as pure as mine, and may you be as moral and as religious as I. Little more was heard about this remarkable invention about Christ until , when director Martin Scorsese announced that he was making the movie of The Last Temptation of Christ for Paramount Pictures.
This had been one of Scorsese's personal goals since he had read the novel several years before. Public pressure from Christians prompted Paramount Pictures to abort the project, and Scorsese looked elsewhere, and eventually made a production deal with Universal Pictures. Early in the spring of this year , Universal Pictures hired a film producer and film marketing expert, Tim Penland, who was also a Christian, to liaison between them and the Christian community concerning The Last Temptation of Christ. Penland understood that Universal wanted to accommodate the legitimate concerns of the evangelical community, and that they did not want to offend Christians.
Penland asked evangelical leader Larry Poland to help him communicate with the evangelical community. Universal promised an early screening to evangelicals, encouraging Penland to solicit their criticisms to help them produce a final edit on the film. Martin Scorsese promised a "faith affirming" film, and Jesus "as sinless, as deity, and as the savior of the world. However, over the next few months, communication between Universal and the Christians, and even between Universal and Penland, broke down. Universal adopted an "us vs.
On the basis of scripts smuggled out of the studio to Penland, and Universal's lack of cooperation, Penland resigned on June The tension escalated, especially when Universal turned evangelicals' honest questions and fears into an ugly censorship issue. Motion picture companies typically covet advance opportunities to diffuse a hostile audience, but Universal seemed determined to disregard evangelical concerns.
The promised screening never materialized. First the evangelicals kept being put off about seeing the film. Then, as the protests grew, word leaked out that Universal had no intention of showing a rough cut film to religious leaders--they were only prepared to show the almost finished film in a quick screening with no intention of making substantive changes. After evangelical leaders time and again accepted screening dates, only to have them cancelled at the last minute, the evangelicals began to suspect that the invitations were insincere.
In the meantime, they felt used by Universal since they had agreed to remain silent until they had previewed the movie. How could they get Universal to show the movie to someone so that the evangelicals could ascertain how closely the smuggled scripts resembled the almost completed film? They decided to call Universal's bluff, as they felt it to be, and see if the next screening date would be honored if they refused to attend. Universal invited, they refused, Universal previewed the film for selected liberals in New York City, unaware that some of the attenders were going to quickly share what they had seen with the evangelicals.
The evangelicals finally had direct information about the film. Thousands of Christians called and wrote Universal in protest. Hundreds of religious leaders Christian, Jewish, and Muslim supported the Christian effort to persuade Universal not to offend a religious group.
The Last Temptation of Christ Multiple Choice Test Questions
Coverage of the protests peppered network, local, and cable television as well as radio and newspapers. Time featured a cover story on Jesus Christ. Protest organizers scheduled a massive inter- religious protest at Universal Pictures in Los Angeles for August 11, and Universal countered by their surprise announcement that the film would be released one day later, on August On August 11, 25, protesters jammed the streets into Universal headquarters in Southern California. The well-organized protest called on Universal to respect the rights and beliefs of the Christian community by withdrawing the film before release.
The movie opened anyway in select theaters throughout the country and in Toronto headquarters of parent company MCA. Despite pickets and pleas, thousands of people saw the movie during those first weeks. Why did Universal refuse to back down? It wasn't consideration for the religious beliefs of any group-- that was evident by their callous disregard of the Christian community.
The Last Temptation of Christ Essay Topics & Writing Assignments
It wasn't because of the money they expected to make--an offer to buy them out was made and refused, and according to reviewers, this movie never had the potential to be a sellout without the artificial publicity from the protest. Little wonder that many religious, moral people understood Universal to be deliberately offending ethical and religious absolutes to promote Scorsese's own subjectivism.
This philosophy so pervades our society today that many people who do not consciously hold these views still assume them in their reaction to the movie. Their accusations against the protesters are colored with it. Their defense of the movie reflects it. Five criticisms of the protesters are constantly raised. They are 1 "If you haven't seen the movie, how do you know it's bad?
It's only a dream temptation, and he doesn't really do it;" and 5 "You Christians are so narrow-minded and bigoted you want to censor free speech. Throughout most of Christian history, worldviews like that of Kazantzakis and Scorsese were clearly understood as being nonbiblical. In the western world, a basic Christian worldview and ethic predominated, and literature like The Last Temptation would not have been produced, published, or accepted.
Even during this century, when the impetus of the combined forces of secular humanism and eastern pantheism New Ageism encouraged many westerners to reject traditional Christianity, it was still regarded with respect. Christians were admired at least for their ethics and their spiritual heritage. Today, in a western world almost crippled by relativism, respect is a foreign word.
Nobody cares if anyone is offended by The Last Temptation. Insider trading manipulates finances; secret arms deals determine foreign policy; public school administrators and teachers crib test answers so their students can get higher scores. The evidence of relativism's power in our society is overwhelming. And, unfortunately, relativism has trapped too many in our churches, too. Pastors preach donations and prosperity instead of the gospel. Preachers curse sin, and hide their own immorality behind payoffs.
When we partake of the unholy communion between secularism and relativism, we don't have any defense against The Last Temptation of Christ. The only effective defense against secular relativism is a fervent, dynamic, confident return to the proclamation of absolute truth--embodied in the person of the biblical Jesus. In the following chapters you will find out who the Jesus of Kazantzakis and Scorsese really is, the answers to the above objections, how we in the church are partly to blame for allowing this religious relativism to blanket western thought, and how we can take constructive, biblical steps to ensure that people will return once again to an objective, historically based, ethical worldview.
He is not Almighty, that he might cross his hands and thus await his certain victory. His salvation depends upon us. And only if he is saved may we be saved. Theory has worth as preparation only; the critical struggle lies in the Act. This is why evangelical Christians are concerned about the book and movie The Last Temptation of Christ. It's not "just fiction, just a story. This worldview identifies God with the universe, and understands God as imperfect, limited, and evolving through universal struggle. You can't skip this part of the puzzle. Nothing in the story makes sense without this understanding.
It is possible for the young Jesus to be full of sin and Lucifer, and then to grow into Messiahship and godhood precisely because God is growing. It's possible for Scorsese to say the Jesus of his movie resists the temptation and is fully God because, if all is God, then of course Jesus is God and sin is God and sinlessness is God. It's all the same. It's possible for Jesus not to know what God wants from him, and yet be God, because God himself doesn't know everything. It's not only possible, but desirable, for the young Jesus to fight against God, to try to get God to hate him, and then to become God's chosen one because the struggle is the process of salvation.
And God needs to be saved in us just as much as we need to save ourselves. Most reviewers and media commentators totally missed this underlying foundation to both novel and movie. No wonder the common query was, "It's only fiction. Why not let Scorsese have his story? They have not just made up a fairy tale that doesn't compete with the facts of the New Testament, they consider their story a rival to the fairy tale of the New Testament. Nikos Kazantzakis was a mystic, an existentialist, a modified Marxist, and a panentheist. Simplistically, this means that 1 he believed spiritual truth or insight came from inner experience; 2 the purpose of existence is to become, not to be; 3 progress or evolution always occurs through violent struggle; and 4 God is the ever-progressing, never-arriving soul of the universe.
Kazantzakis was born in Crete, an island off the coast of Greece. He grew up in the harsh world of Greek peasantry, in the midst of horrible repression and persecution by the Turkish rulers of Crete. Throughout his life, he looked to revolution as the salvation of his small island. He was a complex man, acquiring, modifying, and discarding new ideas and philosophies throughout his life. One author described him as "Greek nationalist, religious ascetic, philosopher, left-wing sympathizer, literatist, and periodic politician, influenced by the more important issues and conflicts that composed the swirling panorama of the years of his life.
The constancy in his life is summed up in one word: Whether he was in his Buddhist monastic phase, his Soviet Marxist phase, or his literary progenitor phase, he was always struggling. He struggled against himself, his world, and his God. He believed that the fulfilled life was a life of struggle, mirroring the cosmic struggle of matter becoming spirit.
Pain, joy, and hope unfold and labor within this struggle, world without end The circle never closes. It is not a circle, but a spiral which ascends eternally, ever widening, enfolding, and unfolding the triune struggle. Kazantzakis first embraced Buddhism, but then rejected Buddha as a Messiah for an earlier stage in God's suffering struggle to evolve. He was then captured by Nietzsche and Karl Marx, although he rejected their strict, atheistic materialism in favor of Hegel's concept of the material evolving into the spiritual.
Finally, he reconciled his commitment to eternal struggle with his asceticism, and devoted the rest of his life to contributing to Man's struggle to grow into God, not by physical conflict, but by his writing. He was the author of ten novels, ten dramas, five travel books, and assorted collections of letters, essays, and poems.
Kazantzakis wrote The Last Temptation of Christ as a picture of the struggle of God to evolve through Man in an ever-ascending spiral. God is the supreme expression of the unwearied and struggling man. He explained his purpose in writing The Last Temptation of Christ in a letter: It isn't a simple 'Life of Christ. Kazantzakis could embrace the Jesus Christ who was both man and God not because he understood and accepted the biblical doctrine, but because he believed God, in his progressing existence, was Man, and so Jesus Christ was man--and God growing through Man toward spirit.
The destiny of Jesus Christ was the same as each man's destiny. As Kazantzakis put it, "All of us, voluntarily or involuntarily, consciously or unconsciously--plants, animals, human beings and ideas--are struggling for the salvation of God. Here is the crux of Christ's mission, according to Kazantzakis, Christ died to save God, not us.
By overcoming the struggle between matter ordinary human life and spirit God's higher stage , God grows and ascends the never-ending spiral. The Last Temptation of Christ was not just a novel to Kazantzakis. It was more true than the gospels. It was a mirror of the cosmic struggle of God in process, the theme of all of Kazantzakis' writing. Kazantzakis was, himself, on a mission. His part in Man's struggle was to struggle with words through his writing he called the Greek alphabet his "24 soldiers".
His struggle was to tell his myth so that the whole world would turn to myth, and join the struggle of the emerging God. Each human being was an integral part of this struggle, and Kazantzakis used all of his writing, including The Last Temptation of Christ, to urge his reader to accept responsibility for his part in the salvation of God: You do not govern now only your own small, insignificant existence. You are a throw of the dice on which, for a moment, the entire fate of your race is gambled.
From the simple outlines of the gospel stories concerning Christ, Kazantzakis lifted those portions he liked, and then created what he felt was missing. He enjoyed changing the Christian story to suit his philosophy because he believed that his myth got to the heart of God's struggle for salvation through the dualities of good and evil. We will summarize both the novel and the film so that you can understand exactly what each one is promoting, and exactly which portions are objectionable to Christians.
By reviewing these summaries, you can know what the book and the movie contain without having to read or see them yourselves. The basic plot of the novel is the same as that of the movie. Jesus, son of Mary, the carpenter, spends his early life struggling against God. He doesn't want to accept his mission, his "throw of the dice" in the process of God's growth. His story is the story of struggle. Jesus is a Jewish carpenter who constructs crosses and sells them to the Romans for their crucifixions.
His own people curse him for collaborating with the oppressors in killing their prophets, but this is Jesus' act of defiance against his calling. Speaking to God he says, "Yes, yes, Yes, on purpose; I do it on purpose. I want you to detest me, to go and find someone else; I want to be rid of you! Yes, yes, on purpose, He practices self-flagellation, physically abusing himself with whips and a wide leather belt lined with spikes. He does penance for his crosses: But Jesus can't find peace.
God continues to bother him, sending him into uncontrollable fits, piercing his brain with spiritual talons sharper than any hawk's. He often wanders from home, delirious from voices and visions. He determines to save himself by retreating to a desert monastery, where he can satisfy God through prayers and fasting rather than through the terrible struggle which beckons. On the way he sees Mary Magdalene, a prostitute driven to prostitution because, as children, she and Jesus had aroused each other but Jesus had turned away from her "to serve God.
I have committed many sins--I'm on my way to the desert now to expiate them--many sins, Mary, but your calamity weighs on me the most Forgive me, my sister. It's my fault, but I shall pay off my debt. There for the first time he openly expresses his struggle with God, confessing to Rabbi Simeon, "Even when I was tiny I shouted to myself--oh, what impudence! God, make me God! I haven't been in my right mind No, I won't be still Now I've started, and it's too late. I won't be still! I'm a liar, a hypocrite, I'm afraid of my own shadow, I never tell the truth--I don't have the courage I never lift my hand to plunder or to thrash or kill--not because I don't want to but because I'm afraid.
I want to rebel against my mother, the centurion, God--but I'm afraid. If you look inside me, you'll see Fear, a trembling rabbit, sitting in my bowels--Fear, nothing else.
- Essay Topic 1;
- The Sea Beside Me.
- The Twe-Guide to TBRP.
That is my father, my mother and my God. That night Jesus is finally cleansed of his fear. He submits to God's will, and his fears slither out of him as snakes, mate in a dance of eternal death and life, and disappear into an abandoned well. Judas, commissioned by the Zealots, comes to kill Jesus for his collaboration with the Romans.
The newly cleansed Jesus is ready. It wasn't you who hissed; it was God--and I came. His abounding grace arranged everything perfectly. You came at just the right moment, Judas, my brother. Tonight my heart was unburdened, purified: I can present myself now before God. I have grown tired of wrestling with him, grown tired of living. I offer you my neck, Judas--I'm ready. Judas asks him why.
Jesus replies, "'When I bend over the ant, inside his black, shiny eye I see the face of God. The section of the novel dealing with Jesus' growing ministry comprises the bulk of the novel. Kazantzakis re-crafts the beatitudes, Christ's parables, some of the miracles recorded in the Bible, and Jesus' private talks with the disciples to illustrate the unfolding divine awareness within Jesus. For example, Kazantzakis changes the biblical story of Lazarus and the rich man to reflect his belief that everything is progressively reconciled in the maturation of God, who is the soul of everything.
Kazantzakis has Jesus recount the standard story, but then has the apostle John object: It must have a different ending. My fountains are inexhaustible. Bring him here so that he may drink and refresh himself, and you refresh yourself with him. Jesus reads what Matthew has written for the first time and screams, "Lies! The Messiah doesn't need miracles. He is the miracle--no other is necessary! I never in my life went to Egypt Jesus muses, not understanding what is true and what is false, "If this was the highest level of truth, inhabited by God If what we called truth, God called lies During this time Jesus comes to a gradual awareness that he is the Messiah, that God is speaking and working miracles through him, and that he has a special role in God's salvation through Man.
His disciples including a reformed Mary Magdalene follow him without being fully convinced that he is the Messiah. This is how Kazantzakis related Jesus' uncertainty: Lord, are you pleased with me? Surely the Lord must be displeased with me, he suddenly thought, shuddering. But why am I to blame, Lord? I've told you, how many times have I told you: But you have pushed me more and more In this section of the book, Jesus has one main struggle: Over and over Kazantzakis shows this struggle. Inside Jesus feels like killing those who attempt to stone Mary Magdalene: Inside he cries out against the Roman injustice to the Jews: Finally, Jesus goes to the desert to wait for God's clear voice.
He wants to know, once and for all, what God demands of him. Temptations come to him various forms, including a snake, a lion, and a flaming light. After he has resisted each one, God speaks to him clearly for the first time: Run and carry the message to men: His struggle is against war, against the body, and against violence. He will be the sacrifice, not only for his own sins, but for the sins of the world. Jesus' coming sacrifice will provide the marriage of love and hate, suffering and violence to push God and Man further up the eternal spiral of divinity.
Jesus reflects, "'Great things happen when God mixes with man. Without man, God would have no mind on this Earth to reflect upon his creatures intelligibly and to examine, fearfully yet impudently, his wise omnipotence But man, without God, born as he is unarmed, would have been obliterated by hunger, fear and cold In harmony with Kazantzakis' belief that everything is part of God, both good and evil, Judas is partnered with Jesus to accomplish God's will. Judas has no free will: God has predestined him to betray Jesus to the authorities.
Jesus encourages Judas to betray him, saying, "There is no other way. Do not quiver, Judas, my brother. In three days I shall rise again. No, the closer we come to the terrible moment God will give you the strength, as much as you lack, because it is necessary--it is necessary for me to be killed and for you to betray me. We two must save the world. After a moment he asked, 'If you had to betray your master, would you do it? Finally he said, 'No, I do not think I would be able to.
That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: Do not abandon me; help me. Events move quickly now. The Last Supper is celebrated, Jesus prays in the garden, Judas betrays him, he is tried and sentenced. He is brutally beaten, scourged, and nailed to the cross. Suddenly, just as he thinks he can't endure any more, he "awakes" in a springtime world with a young black male guardian angel announcing that his suffering and struggling was just a dream. God wants him to find personal salvation within his flesh, within the world, in the arms of Mary Magdalene.
They have sex in the grass, and Jesus exclaims, "[This is] the road by which the mortal becomes immortal, the road by which God descends to earth in human shape.
I went astray because I sought a route outside the flesh I bow and worship you, Mother of God. This one falls; the next rises. Jesus moves in with Mary and Martha and resumes the life of a simple carpenter. We have become friends. I won't build crosses any more. Eight Week Quiz E. Eight Week Quiz F. Eight Week Quiz G. Mid-Book Test - Easy. Final Test - Easy. Mid-Book Test - Medium. Final Test - Medium. Mid-Book Test - Hard. Final Test - Hard. View a FREE sample. He takes personal responsibility for the fact that Mary Magdalene has become a prostitute, blaming himself for not having married her and provided a normal life.
But after meditating in the desert, Jesus comes to a different realization about his destiny. Slowly gathering about him the group of men and women who will become his disciples, he begins to preach. He urges Judas to betray him in order to accomplish this mission. Looking down, Jesus sees a beautiful little girl who claims to be an angel of the Lord. Taking him to a verdant valley, the girl presents him to Mary Magdalene for marriage.
When Magdalene later dies, Jesus continues living a quiet life with Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, the man he raised from the dead. He fathers more children with the sisters and lives to a ripe old age. And he reveals that the angelic-looking girl is, in fact, the devil. Realizing the truth, Jesus recommits himself to God—and finds himself back on the cross.