I'm Not Watching The Chosen

Mr Holdsworth presents his soundly Catholic ideas about why he's not.

So, a lot of people have been asking me about The Chosen and if I’ve watched it and what I think of it and my reply is always the same. I haven’t watched it and I don’t intend to. Now that sounds harsh as if I’m prejudiced against it, and maybe I am, but it isn’t meant to be an outright criticism of the show. Like I said, I haven’t seen it so I can’t judge it on its own merit and I wouldn’t fault anyone for watching it, but I can say why I’m, generally as a rule, wary of dramatic depictions of Jesus Christ and why that has discouraged me from taking a look at The Chosen. The two reasons, broadly speaking, for my apprehension have to do with Christology and the use of sacred art to inform our faith.

So, starting with Christology, if you aren’t familiar with that term, it is the study of who Jesus was and is and some of the nuances of the incarnation of God as man – like how the puzzle pieces of humanity and divinity fit together in a coherent way. Here’s the first thing to realize: our understanding of Christology is extremely nuanced and very difficult to get right. In fact, it was so difficult that for the first few centuries of the Church, this is what theologians spent their time debating and even fighting about, and trying to resolve. And even once those controversies were resolved and a clear theology emerged, we still had bishops, clergy, and statesmen who couldn’t even get it right when it was dogmatically defined and explained to them.

All of which is to say that it’s very difficult to get right and requires great care. And that isn’t to say that filmmakers don’t feel the weight of that pressure when they attempt to depict the person of Jesus, but it does mean that it’s extremely easy to make mistakes.