Some critics have noted that there is a tendency toward Gnosticism in both Amerixan religion and in the Jesus-film tradition... Scorsese [however] does not deny the value of the flesh in favor of the spirit (as some say Gnosticism would), but rather affirms the superiority of the spirit to the flesh. (Staley and Walsh 113)
Staley and Walsh reject a gnostic worldview present in The Last Temptation of Christ. However, their rejection of this influence is based on two fallacies: one, that Gnosticism can be reduced to its rejection of flesh in light of the spirit and, two, that the world Jesus inhabits is actually Ed