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Christian Science Monitor: Fredriksen and the Passion controversy
Last April, Paula Fredriksen, BU's William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture, was one of a group of scholars asked by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to assess the script of director/writer Mel Gibson's film Passion. The group raised issues about the historical inaccuracies in the script and prepared a confidential report that outlined the problems. “Icon Productions leaked our report to the media,” writes Fredriksen in an opinion piece in the February 2 Christian Science Monitor, “presented our assessment as an ‘attack' on Christianity, and has worked hard to keep the controversy alive until the movie's release February 25. . . . Let's be clear: This is an action flick. Gibson has taken skills honed in Lethal Weapon, Conspiracy, and Payback to construct his take on the last 12 hours of Jesus' life. . . . It's just a movie. But this movie . . . stands in the echo chamber of traditional Christian anti-Judaism. . . . Will Passion have a negative effect on society? Might it promote anti-Jewish violence? I think it well might. Long cultural habits die hard. Debate around the film has already occasioned ugly anti-Semitic slurs. My university and I have received ominous threats from a furious Christian Passion fan. . . . If the publicity-oriented ‘debate' stirs such feelings now, will the true debate stir fewer feelings once the public can actually view the movie? I doubt it.”
Boston Globe: Love thy neighbor? Nah!
A longtime winter tradition in Boston — preserving shoveled-out curbside parking spaces with folding chairs, trash barrels, and other territorial marking devices — was recently outlawed by Mayor Thomas Menino (Hon.'01), sparking debate about the lack of civility in Bostonians, reports the February 1 Boston Globe. Some neighborhoods' changing ethic identities have made civility more of a challenge today, says Leroy Rouner, a CAS professor emeritus of philosophy who recently had a collection of essays on civility published. “Urbanization means that I don't feel badly about waving off the other guy because I don't know him,” he says. “People are good to people who belong in their tribe: family, friends, their religious group or hometown, even a fellow Patriots fan. Tom Menino is probably shocked by incivility because his tribe — the Boston Italian community — is good to each other."
Boston Magazine: MED prof on magazine's list of “up-and-coming” physicians
The February issue of Boston magazine offers a guide “to the top up-and-coming doctors in 20 specialties . . . a new breed of physicians who are changing the way medicine is practiced here.” The physicians were chosen from a stable of the magazine's previously ranked up-and-coming physicians over the past two years and are considered “the most promising new medical talent in and around the city.” Peter Merkel, a School of Medicine assistant professor of medicine and a physician in Boston Medical Center's rheumatology department, whose interests are complex autoimmune diseases and novel therapies in the areas of vasculitis and scleroderma, was chosen because he “is recognized as being an expert in vasculitis,” says Robert Simms, a MED professor of medicine and BMC clinical director of rheumatology. “Because of his unique interest, he is seen by others in the medical community as an up-and-comer, someone who is on the brink of being very well established in a particular field of medicine. Dr. Merkel approaches everything he does with an energetic and enthusiastic attitude.”
6
February 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations