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The Bart Ehrman Movie Club Presents: Life of Brian
Every year I teach an undergraduate course called “Jesus in Scholarship and Film.” In the class, students study about a dozen gospels (canonical and non-canonical), see what historians say about the historical Jesus, and watch/evaluate Jesus movies. The point is that every portrayal – ancient literary, modern scholarly, cinematic – has a slant and a perspective; every portrayal is different. At the beginning of the year I have students watch an interesting overview – with clips – of major portrayals of Jesus in film, called “Jesus Christ Moviestar,” which begins with the silents and goes up to the early 90s. Afterward, I ask the students which of those films (they’ve never seen any of them!) do you think would be most interesting to watch. The resounding answer, every time, is “Life of Brian.” It’s a FANTASTIC choice. Yes, it’s a Monty Python spoof. Yes, it’s meant to be (and is) very funny. Yes, it was attacked by conservative Christians as being blasphemous (the vast majority of them hadn’t actually seen it). BUT, yes, it is [...]