Literature and Theology Advance Access originally published online on August 6, 2009
Literature and Theology 2009 23(3):344-355; doi:10.1093/litthe/frp040
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Crucifixion in the Concert Hall: Secular and Sacred in James Macmillan's Passion of St John
Department of Biblical Studies, The University of Sheffield, Arts Tower, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK h.pyper{at}sheffield.ac.uk
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Abstract |
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James MacMillan's Passion of St John is a prime exemplar of the issues that can arise when a sacred text is presented in a secular space. MacMillan takes not only the text of the Gospel but the liturgical experience of the Good Friday liturgy into the concert hall. This raises the question of how the audience is expected to react to the performance. A particular problem arises from the inclusion of the Improperia, or Reproaches, a text which has been a point of controversy between Jewish and Christian interpreters and which makes direct demands upon its audience and their response. The argument of this paper is that MacMillan's setting characteristically intensifies the challenge and presents the choice between belief and unbelief as a choice between an ethical and an aesthetic reaction to the Christian story. This is a common but misleading polarisation accepted by both secular and religious critics. Each group present their own attitude to the text as morally superior to that of their opponents. Kierkegaard's view that the religious is to be distinguished from both the ethical and the aesthetic, and that the key moment is that of humour, may offer another model for dialogue between the secular and the religious in public discourse.