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“Virtual Savior: The Postmodern Messiah in The Matrix”

Virtual Savior : The Postmodern Messiah in The Matrix

For seemingly as long as the human species has existed , it has had its gods . The tale is one that has evolved greatly over time , and has taken on many different faces and forms , but has remained at its core essentially the same : a tale of morality . A tale of interpreting human nature . A tale of something so great and powerful it is largely beyond human understanding . A tale of creation and salvation . A tale of redemption . As long as humans have lived , they have

had faith . It is the one thing that has held the fascination of men over time immemorial We have incorporated various representations of our respective dogmata into all aspects of our society - our paintings , art , music , writings teachings , buildings - there is no limit to the reach of religious interjection in human culture , and we see evidence of this as far back as we see evidence of civilization

THE MESSIANIC PARABLE

In many ways , our (and by our ' I mean the generally accepted dominant culture in a given place at a given time ) religious beliefs inform our own popular culture , and thus in turn our popular culture imitates our religious beliefs . Currently , Christianity is the dominant religion in Western civilization , with the primary figure of Christianity (most particularly in Catholicism , which is the reigning sect of Christianity being , well , Christ . Therefore it follows largely without saying that much of our popular culture - our art , films , music , literature , etc . - presents various incarnations of the Christ story and figure . The most widely imitated biblical life story .is that of Jesus .Jesus figures are identified by experiences or actions similar to those associated with Jesus in the gospels ' Much like the ancient Greeks and Romans , who consistently wrote the gods into their own stories as physically present characters and supplicated themselves before their gods for even the simplest of acts , we have an ever-present all-encompassing fascination with the character of Christ , and explore this character within the realm of our popular culture at every given opportunity . With the dawn of the silver screen , society was granted a whole new way in which to glorify and /or deconstruct the Christ story Jesus has been represented in paintings , sculptures , and stained-glass windows for centuries since the invention of moving pictures in the 1890s , he has also been a perennial subject in films and television

The downfall of film in presenting the Christ story is that it is simply far too vast to be properly encompassed within 120 minutes (though this hasn 't deterred filmmakers from trying . Due to the inability to effectively present the Christ story without angering some disappointing others , inciting near-riots (the uproar raised over the most recent The Passion of the Christ being no small example of this etc , a different approach has been taken in film (though not exclusive to film ) which allows a certain amount of creative freedom otherwise unavailable in the Christ story : the Messianic parable...

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