This movie demonstrates a really interesting trend in recent entertainment that is based on biblical scholarship. The problem is that scholars don't have a voice in popular media. Partly this is because they don't really want one, and partly this is because scholars, especially biblical scholars, are so ensconced in their own academic world that speak almost a different dialect. This highly informed way of viewing the world doesn't translate to the world of entertainment, where the goal is simply to maintain interest to make money. So the movie industry is capable of denying the FACT that you raised that even the most die-hard atheist scholar will seriously hesitate before denying that Jesus Christ existed goes completely and utterly unchallenged, because through lack of interest and lack of voice, the scholars who are in a position to correct the situation are incapable of doing so.
Blorge
· 4 years ago
Chris, I partially agree with you. I would say that the academy and the Hollywood machine don't overap very well. Call it "language games" or "non-overlaping magesteria" or whatever you like.
I disagree with part of the analysis. I think that the Jesus Seminar has shown the power that the academy can have over secular media, even if their scholarship isn't all that great.
All it might take is for some of the Biblical scholars to come together across the board and make a statement in the media, it could be a good thing. If NT scholars were willing to do things like go out into the media the way that other scholars do (especially political and legal scholars who cross-over as consultants on news programs) then they may be able to reverse the trend of being a pawn.
This, however would require a lot of work. It may even require a special surgery to get their heads out of their posteriors.
Chris B.
· 4 years ago
I don't necessarily think scholars have their heads so inclined, I think they've just correctly assessed the media machine as uninterested in communicating facts. I think what Hollywood and E! find infinitely more interesting than the best attested theories are the most outlandish, controversial theories, which necessarily (usually) have a poverty of evidence to support them. The Jesus Seminar has been successful because it's made up of a group of scholars who value their own theories so much that submitting to the relatively impossible task of defending their ideas to credible scholars is discarded in favor of the almost unquestioning and wholesale acceptance of their ridiculous theories by the uninformed public. The only thing that the success of the Jesus Seminar in the media has proven is that thus far, the only discernable "power that the academy can have over secular media" is the power to unethically presents unfounded theories that happen to sound controversial.
All Comments
I partially agree with you. I would say that the academy and the Hollywood machine don't overap very well. Call it "language games" or "non-overlaping magesteria" or whatever you like.
I disagree with part of the analysis. I think that the Jesus Seminar has shown the power that the academy can have over secular media, even if their scholarship isn't all that great.
All it might take is for some of the Biblical scholars to come together across the board and make a statement in the media, it could be a good thing. If NT scholars were willing to do things like go out into the media the way that other scholars do (especially political and legal scholars who cross-over as consultants on news programs) then they may be able to reverse the trend of being a pawn.
This, however would require a lot of work. It may even require a special surgery to get their heads out of their posteriors.
--"A must see!"
--Nero Caesar