Are Kozlovic’s Christ Figure characteristics as harmful as
some might put towards Christianity? Is his list completely useless and just an
attempt to look for a Christ figure in a movie through the smallest signs and
characteristics? Many well-known Christ figures- Neo, Superman, Harry Potter,
Frodo Baggins, etc. - can be both harmful and harmless to Christianity. If anything,
Kozlovic’s list is more harmless than harmful, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a
good list to use when looking for Christ figures in film.
The whole idea of a
Christ figure is completely subjective and whether or not a person or group
relates a movie’s character to Christ is based on opinion. With that in mind,
Christ figures could be harmful towards Christianity because people might look
for the smallest characteristics that they can relate a character to Christ
with, causing him to be misinterpreted. In other words, the character could be
viewed as a mockery to Christ himself. On the other hand, having Christ figures
in today’s society can be appealing to Christianity because it could cause
people to take interest in the religion.
)
Whether or not a Christ figure exists
in a movie and whether they were made intentionally, or just created by the
viewer, is based on whether or not people want to believe that a movie’s
character is a portrayal of Christ. In my opinion, in no way does this seem
harmful. Christ figures have always existed. Even in the time of Jesus, weren’t
his parables, in a sense, portrayals of people who acted like him; to show
people how to act according to God, but to not make Jesus the actual character
in his stories? If people choose to view Christ figures, it is because they
want to make a relation of their hero to Christ himself. It’s other people’s
choices to accept those same Christ figures or not. Kozlovic’s characteristics
simply allow one to relate God’s son to a character that certain people might
find influential and would want to make the connection with.
I totally agree that the Christ figure can be both extremely powerful and yet at the same time can be harmless. I would also agree with the comment that a Christ figure might win non Christian people over to Christianity, or it might inspire them. But I believe that the biggest reason for using the Christ figure is because it is something familiar. Whether you are Christian, Agnostic, Atheist, etc, In Canada we are part of a Western society. The Christ figure is taboo, it is inherent. In my blog post I discussed how the imagery around Christ can be used simply as a metaphor to carry a completely non Christian message. Just as Shakespeare referenced classical works, movies often reference the Gospel because the two works are so widely known. But, it is important to remember what Deacy says in the article. We must take the work of art on it's own terms. Thus, Jesus is a vessel to carry the message, but he is not the message itself. In this manner, I would say that the Christ figure can be very dangerous, because any person can hijack the image and likeness of Christ and use it for whatever purpose comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteHello :)
ReplyDeletehere is my response to your post:
http://christandpopularculture.blogspot.com/2012/02/response-to-christ-figures-harmful-or.html
Hi Valdy, great post! Here is my response to it:
ReplyDeletehttp://themodernchrist.blogspot.ca/2012/02/vbehaviorurldefaultvmlo.html