The Body of Christ : blasphemy, eroticism and transgression in Martin Scorses's The Last Temptation of Christ

Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) has polarised critics and audiences for almost two decades. The film is most often remembered for offending the religious sensibilities of fundamentalist Christians, who objected to Scorsese’s representation of Christ as a neurotic figure who struggles to reconcile his divinity with his sexual impulses.

Even critics who reject the fundamentalist accusations of blasphemy are divided about the film’s value. For example, Rolando Caputo praises the film as an unrecognised masterpiece, which confirms Scorsese’s status as an auteur. Conversely, Leonard W. Levy, dismiss the film as having little artistic merit. This paper re-evaluates the film as a serious theological text by re-examining the film in the light of Michel Foucault’s essay ‘A Preface to Transgression,’ arguing that the film can be read as a sophisticated attempt to examine the connections between corporeality, divinity and human subjectivity.