Systematic reflections upon the Christ images in some modern Western films

Abstract

All of the images applied to Jesus in the New Testament have as their context the religious world of that time. So, there was a vivid interaction between gospel and culture. Especially in Western culture, however, that seems not anymore the case. This lack of interaction might be one of the main crises of Western theology. Could modern Jesus films fill in this gap and offer new, useful images? Partly, they do indeed. Referring to films like Babette’s Feast, A Short Film About Love and Breaking the Waves is shown that filmmakers often have more tools at their disposal to express the meaning of Jesus Christ in Western culture than theologians have.