The Christian Reality

Abstract

Following this, it can be argued that Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew is an attempt to constitute a Christian subjectivity. However, what kind of a Christian subject? Pasolini’s version of Christianity is Christianity without the sacred, or in Žižekian terms, it is Christianity whose commitments are not ontotheological. Jesus Christ is not so much the transmitter of the Divine word; he does not preach escapism, but, rather, earthly revolution. The lack of effects in the film (apart from the usual trick of walking on water) is a clear antitheological position of Pasolini. He is not concerned with the miraculous aspect of the Gospel, which in the film is depicted at a minimalistic level. Pasolini successfully avoids Hollywood-like spectacles, and in doing so, Jesus Christ gains a full earthly dimension. According to Althusser, “ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.” With respect to this, Pasolini’s initial anti-ideological move is to present a sense of realism by demystifying the “sacred.” Jesus is much more concerned with social oppression and exploitation than he is with the individual sin.