Review of Jesus Revolution (2023) by Mauro_Lanari — 15 Jul 2023

(Mauro Lanari).

A half-truth is a half-lie, and it's the case with this movie. The April 8, 1966 cover of "Time" magazine claimed, with a catchy headline ("Is God Dead?") and with unacceptable simplifications, of being more farsighted than Nietzsche, who was included among the founders of the "Death of God theology". Nothing could be further from the truth: the philosopher from Röcken was perfectly aware of the anthropological intranscendability of the "homo spiritualis", therefore, after destroying the Christian God starting with the aphorism 125 of "The Gay Science", he hastened to replace him with Zoroastrianism. The same with the Weberian "disenchantment of the world" ("Entzauberung der Welt", 1919), always referring to Christianity and Northern Europe even if instead understood Eurocentrically as theism and the entire West. The debate over secularization and secularism between Löwith, Blumenberg, and Pannenberg added to the confusion. The only certainty was that a process of de-Christianization was underway: churches increasingly empty and fewer and fewer baptized, practicing, vocations. On 12 January '59 ("Acta Apostolicae Sedis" 51, p. 832) and then Christmas of '61 (apostolic constitution "Humanae Salutis"), John XIII prayed that a "new Pentecost" would be poured out on the convened Second Vatican Council, whose first session was held on 11 October '62. No one can guarantee that the papal invocation had an effect, but it is certain that a "second Pentecost" really took place, both among evangelical Pentecostals with a spiritual awakening and among Catholics with events that have gone down in history such as the birth of the charismatic movement in February '67 in Duquesne. The Erwin brothers are an offshoot of the Kendrick brothers (the younger brother Jon served as their second unit director) and suggest that they want to tell, with a somewhat documentary fiction, the "neo-Pentecostal third wave", that is, what always "Time" on its June 21, 1971 cover defined "The Jesus Revolution". Also this time the magazine was simplistic in its title and articles: from the initial generic euphoria ("Jesus Christ is still alive among us as two thousand years ago in Palestine"), ever more precise and accurate expectations developed. According to the estimates of the sociologists of religion, over 600 million Christians returned to being practicing because by the year 2000 they expected the transition from the "slain Lamb" (the Crucifix) to the "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" (the glorious parousia). When the turn of the millennium arrived without the hoped-for Advent, both movements disappeared due to the disappointment and today it is a challenge to find someone who persists in hoping: the process of de-Christianization is more advanced than ever. Anyway, this does not interest the Erwin brothers who, on the contrary, try to make believe exactly the opposite.