Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Greek Orthodox and Western Views of the Passion and Easter,
Pascha: Where is the Holy Grail?

By Dr. Christos P. Ioannides*

This coming Sunday, Greek and Eastern Orthodox around the world will celebrate Easter, known in Greek as Pascha, which in turn originates from the Jewish Pesach, Passover. Earlier, this past Sunday, Catholics, Protestants and other western Christian denominations celebrated their Easter while Jews all over celebrated Passover.

For the Greek Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants, when we celebrate Easter, we follow the steps of Jesus Christ, from His triumphant entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the Last Supper, what the Greeks call the “Mystical Supper” (Mysticos Deipnos)—there is a difference between the terms “last” and “mystical.” Finally, there is the Passion (Pathos) and the Resurrection (Anastasis).

During these two Holy weeks for Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox one cannot but think of the enormous media attention and the debate thereof during the last couple of years, of the last stage of Jesus Christ’s life on earth, his passion and glorious resurrection, and what do all these mean for us today.

I am referring to three “works”: Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of The Christ, Dan Brown’s best selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, and the recent appearance of a manuscript representing, as we are told via the National Geographic, the Gospel According to Judas. All three, the film, the book and the manuscript, share two major characteristics: First, they have received an inordinate amount of US media coverage and have become globalized in the process. In this sense, these three “works” have become an American media event, primarily, a television event. This is important considering that American popular culture is shaped primarily by TV.

The second shared characteristic of these “works,” has to do with the media coverage and debate over these “works.” It was a coverage and a debate presenting,  more or less, a one-dimensional perspective of Christianity, one emanating mostly from Western sources, tradition and interpretation of what constitutes the quintessence of Christian faith: Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. I want to emphasize here the term “Western” as juxtaposed to “Eastern.”

Let me explain. I will try to do so by not entering into a theological or soteriological argument. Rather I will make a simple observation that one could make having followed the media coverage and debate over these three “works.” I will argue then, that the media debate, while by no means monolithic since it included plenty of dissenting views, reflected mostly a western interpretation and perspective vis a vis Gibson’s film, the Da Vinci Code, and the Judas Gospel. In the process, what has been overlooked has been the Greek and Eastern Orthodox tradition and perspective on this cosmic event Greeks call Pascha.

Take Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion of Christ.” It shows a suffering Christ carrying His Cross in graphic visual effects and close-ups with blood dripping all over and covering His almost disfigured face. I am not arguing here that this view of the “Passion” is the prevailing view in western Christianity, far from that. This is Mel Gibson’s view, who has claimed, however, that his film did represent an authentic rendition of the Passion as it was based, we are told, on original sources, the Gospels primarily, that were written in Greek. Did Mel Gibson, in making his “authentic” Passion of Christ movie, read the four Gospels written in Greek by the Evangelists John, Mark, Matthew and Luke?

It is quite accurate, that the media debate over Mel Gibson’s Passion represented divergent views, many quite critical of his film. Still there was a problem regarding how the media framed the debate. It became a debate, even in disagreement, within the “house” of western Christianity. Absent from the debate was the tradition and viewpoint of Eastern Christianity, the Greek Orthodox and the  (resurgent) Eastern Orthodox Christianity of Russia and the Slavic World that represents 350 million faithful around the world. For instance, had the media included in their panels representatives of the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Churches, theologians, seminarians, professors, Byzantine art historians, they would have presented to the American public a more representative view of Christian diversity, one that includes Eastern Orthodoxy. Such inclusion would have pointed out, for instance, that in the traditional Greek Orthodox religious art, iconography, frescoes, mosaics, illuminated manuscripts, the suffering Christ on the way to the Cross is different than Mel Gibson’s “authentic Christ.” Thus, the Easter hagiographic tradition that is relatively closer to the times of Christ’s passion, depicts mostly an austere figure of the suffering Christ.  There is a wreath of thorns (stephanos ex akanthon) over His head. Few small drops of blood are painted-with a very thin brush, I suspect-- on His forehead. Christ’s face, as he carries His cross, is sad, but still very serene (galenio, in Greek). This representation of Christ’s passion is far different from Mel Gibson’s “authentic” Passion. This Eastern Orthodox perspective was overlooked in the media debate that could have only been enriched by its presence.

A similar pattern was followed in the media debate over the book, The Da Vinci Code as well as just two weeks ago on the manuscript of The Gospel According to Judas. Again what we saw on TV, heard on radio talk shows, and read in the print media, was mostly views and commentaries representing western Christianity.  As with the Gibson’s Passion, Eastern Orthodoxy was absent from the debate. For instance, commenting on The Da Vinci Code--bestseller for 158 weeks—we heard views, and interpretations and disagreements over the “Holy Grail,” an important component of The Da Vinci Code.  TV Documentaries tried to find evidence of the “Holy Grail.” I saw one that found no conclusive evidence of the “Holy Grail.” Yet, all these perspectives and viewpoints came from sources representing western Christianity. Absent were the Greek and Eastern Orthodox perspective. Had these been represented in the debate and the documentaries, it would have provided the American public another viewpoint. One that was not necessarily the “only truth,” but yet a perspective that has behind it the venerated tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy, a tradition, that among others, has no ecclesiastical belief and no folklore or myths about a “Holy Grail” and therefore no need to search for it.


In the end, I will argue that the media debate over the three works that revolve around the holiest of the holy for Christianity, the passion and resurrection of Christ, was incomplete as it overlooked an important source, the ecclesiastical tradition, historiography, and hagiography of the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Church. The inclusion of Eastern Orthodoxy in this media debate would only confirm, despite the differences, our shared Judeao-Chistian tradition that brings together Catholics, Protestants and Greek and Eastern Orthodox in an Ecumenical celebration of Pascha.

Bona Pasca, Kalo Pascha, Kale Anastase.

*Dr. Christos P. Ioannides is Director of the . The views expressed above are strictly his own.

Contact Dr. Ioannides at: xpioannides@hotmail.com