More than $117 million in box-office receipts, racked up for “The Passion of the Christ” over… More than $117 million in box-office receipts, racked up for “The Passion of the Christ” over the course of its opening five days, show that a lot of people walked into movie theaters to see the Mel Gibson film.

But the story they are walking out with has been loudly contested, and critics, religious scholars and moviegoers are at odds over whether “The Passion” lives up to the standard of valid interpretation.

The film, which portrays the last hours of the life of Jesus Christ, has no shortage of detractors. But despite the harsh reaction to the film in op-ed columns and film reviews, viewers filled many theaters to capacity at the film’s opening last Wednesday.

Scores of viewers used tickets that were reserved, either individually or through church congregations, like Pitt’s Roman Catholic Newman Club. Pitt undergraduate and Newman Club President Philip Magcalas praised the film, which he watched with group members at the Loews Waterfront Theatre.

“I think it’s a message of hope,” Magcalas said. “It’s the foundation of what God gave for the world – I think that’s hope right there.”

“It should be an interesting experience for anyone of any religion,” he said.

According to Rabbi James Gibson of Temple Sinai, a Shadyside synagogue, the large, nontraditional audience for the film does not necessarily indicate a widespread acceptance.

“I think the people who came with a particular belief walked away with a validation of their beliefs,” Rabbi Gibson said.

Rabbi Gibson suggested that many among those who do not subscribe to the Christian faith are questioning the film’s controversial content and are concerned about its “broad touches” and violent imagery.

Stopping short of calling director and producer Mel Gibson an anti-Semite, Rabbi Gibson instead criticized his sources for the story as told in the film’s script, especially the writings of a 19th century Catholic nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich. Emmerich’s ecstatic visions were recorded in the book, “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

“Those visions are graphic and lurid,” Rabbi Gibson said. “And her visions are anti-Semitic.”

Rabbi Gibson’s comments echoed those of Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman, who has restricted most of his criticism to the film’s interpretation of events.

“Per se, I don’t think that Mel Gibson is anti-Semitic,” Foxman said to the New Yorker. “I think that he is insensitive.”

Rebecca Denova, an instructor in Pitt’s Religious Studies Department, believes that the story of redemption and forgiveness of sins in “The Passion of the Christ” is not valued universally, which may explain the adverse reactions to the film.

“Forgiveness assumes guilt. The idea that Christ died for the sins of the world is a Christian belief,” Denova said.

Contemporary Christian theology has recognized the tension this worldview creates, according to Denova, “and tried to solve the problem through Christian-Jewish relations.”

Denova does not want to see the conversation end, and to that effect she is participating in a series of religious discussions in Pittsburgh, one of which will be hosted by Pitt’s University Honors College later this month.

Admirers of the film, like Pitt undergraduate Jason Hursh, praise the cinematic realism of “The Passion of the Christ” and believe that concerns about the film’s historicity are misplaced. Hursh, president of Pitt’s chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ, applauded what he considered a message of evangelization.

“The overall effect of the movie has people settling back to what they really believe,” he said. “I think the truth of the events was played out.”

But, like Denova, Hursh believes that the film also presents an opportunity for discussion.

“I believe that, for all faiths, this is good for getting back to talking,” he said.