The movie had an additional effect. It reinforced a widespread but much too narrow understanding of the “passion” of Jesus. Mel Gibson called his film The Passion of the Christ and based his screenplay on Anne Catherine Emmerich’s The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Both authors understood the term “passion” in the context of its traditional Roman Catholic and broader Christian background. “Passion” is from the Latin noun passio, meaning “suffering.”
