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Or maybe he died simply for his unpopular, even subversive beliefs rather than for the sin of the world. That kind of thinking goes against classical atonement theology. "It's our belief," Mr. Gibson told Primetime, "that by the sin of the first people, original sin, that the gates were closed to us, to eternal life, and that his sacrifice as a redeemer of all mankind was to open the gates to all of us again." That viewpoint dominated the early centuries of the church, when the primary statements of faith were written. The Nicene and Apostles' creeds punctuate beliefs in the virgin birth, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection – but say nothing about Jesus' teachings. The most popular atonement theologies combined aspects of the ransom theory (Jesus' death freed humanity from Satan's hold), the satisfaction theory (Jesus' death makes amends for humanity's sin) and sacrificial theory (Jesus' death is the ultimate sin offering to God). "Atonement theologies say our connection to God is through Jesus' suffering," said the Rev. Flora Keshgegian, a theologian at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin. "Others have wanted to stress that connection is through Jesus' humanity." Suffering is so integral to atonement theory that in interviews, Mr. Gibson interchanges the phrases "the Crucifixion" and "the sacrifice." From his vantage – and that of the shapers of Christian doctrine – there is no other way to understand the cross. "Mel is not trying to get the record straight about who killed Jesus," said Dr. Daryl Schmidt, head of the religion department at TCU. "He's providing a visual way of understanding his version of atonement theory." It's shock-and-awe theology that says the level of agony endured was a measure of the depth of God's love for humanity. Only a few seconds of the movie are given to resurrection, and virtually none to Jesus' life. The R-rated movie is so blood-splatteringly brutal that theologians have accused Mr. Gibson, a Catholic, of embellishing the Gospels. A Catholic archdiocese has cautioned that Jesus' suffering has been torn from the context of the Resurrection. Churches usually stress that the life, death and Resurrection must be understood together. That's because without the Resurrection, the cross is meaningless, said Dick Davis, pastor of Peace Mennonite Church in Dallas. "What brings salvation is that God says the cross is not the end of the story," he said. The film's focus is on Jesus' final hours, when the Gospels say he was arrested, whipped and hung on a cross to die. Evangelical leaders invited to advance screenings say the movie accurately reflects the Gospels – a claim some biblical scholars dispute. "There's no Gospel ever written that tells it quite this way," said Dr. Schmidt, a New Testament specialist. "He's pulling one line from Matthew and another from John and creating propaganda in the service of the church's atonement theology." Some churches are promoting the movie as the "greatest evangelical tool in 2,000 years" (overlooking, perhaps unintentionally, the New Testament). Across the country, congregations have bought out tickets for the opening days of the movie. Christians accustomed to the tepid crosses of Easter pageants will be jolted by the film's depiction of "just how much Jesus suffered" for them, said the Rev. Troy White, a Baptist minister from Mt. Pleasant in East Texas. "When they were driving the nail in his hand, it was like I was doing that," he said. "I saw myself there. I saw how he died for my sin. I was shaking." Suffering, he said, is not something that spa-pampered Americans are used to seeing. He called the movie a "scriptural reality check." Evangelical singer Christy Nockels said the movie made her rethink Jesus. "I guess I'd always thought since he was God's son he probably didn't feel pain or that God didn't make him suffer," said Ms. Nockels, of the husband-wife duo Watermark, based near Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Gibson, who said he put more than $25 million of his own money into the project, told Primetime that the movie represents his artistic vision of the Crucifixion, based on his reading of the Gospels. In Mr. Gibson's world, the best of Catholicism is pre-1960s and in Latin. It's a world where the crucified body of Jesus still hangs on crosses to remind believers not only of God's sacrifice, but that there's no easy path to salvation. Protestant churches favor crosses without Jesus' body to emphasize his Resurrection, rather than his bloody death, as the cornerstone of their theology. Other Crucifixion movies, such as The Last Temptation of Christ, imply more violence than they show. But The Passion of the Christ is relentless. Mr. Gibson insists that's because Jesus' death was horrific. From that suffering comes redemption, he insists. "It's excruciating to watch, particularly when Jesus was being beaten," said Don Donahue, an executive for the Rocketown Christian record label near Nashville. "I was feeling sick. I was weeping. But I came out with a deeper desire to serve the Master." E-mail shogan@dallasnews.com

Thats the rest, I changed my mind about excerpting it.