[Puddleglum]

Mel showed to make the modern world see what a real scourging and crucifixion would have been like. The world or at least this li'l screenwriter doesn't like to see what it was and is capable of. That willful blindness is an interesting psychological phenomena to me. Likewise, I'm sure the fact that the film's violence does not feed into nihilism is a culture shock to many.

[bereanway]

You're exactly right. The brutality that was depicted in The Passion points out the sinfulness of sin and how seriously God takes sin. That sin has very dramatic consequences which impact every last one of us is not tolerated well in our "enlightened" society. The belief that there is meaning to life is anathema to the nihilism which undergirds our post-modern culture.