David's Daily Diversions

Russian Reaction to the Mel's Movie

A good friend and Orthodox archpriest sent me this article from the Moscow Times on the reaction to The Passion of the Christ among the Orthodox hierarchs, clergy, and faithful in Russia.

To give you an idea of the tone of the article, I will include the following excerpt:

"The film has overcome [my] prejudices and doubts," said Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, rector of Moscow University's St. Tatiana Chapel and associate professor at Moscow Theological Academy, in an interview published in Izvestia. "It is almost astonishing for the present state of cinematography and public consciousness -- I had not expected that such a profound and sincere return to the foundations of our faith would be possible in Western society. I think that 'The Passion of the Christ' has already become a fact not of cinema history, but of the religious history of Christianity."