In this episode we close out our Jesus film series with a discussion on the pedagogical value of films generally in teaching the Gospels with the Rev. Canon Dr. Robert Derrenbacker, who is Frank Woods Associate Professor in New Testament at Trinity College, Melbourne. Over the course of our discussion, we talk broadly about Christ figures in film in addition to proper Jesus films. Dr. Derrenbacker talks with us about the way that film helps to make the familiar unfamiliar for our students. Dr. Derrenbacker explains why he prefers the Jesus films that are intentionally anachronistic, or recontextualized, precisely because they are the ones that best defamiliarize the Jesus story so that we can experience it in a fresh new way. He points to films like Son of Man and Jesus of Montreal, among others. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne and Rev. Dr. Chris Porter.

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In this penultimate episode of our Jesus film series, we talk about the enemies of Jesus in Jesus films with Prof. Adele Reinhartz, who is Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, and the author of a number of important studies on Jesus films and Bible films, including: Jesus of Hollywood (Oxford University Press) and Bible and Cinema (Routledge). Over the course of our conversation we talk especially about the portrayal of Judas, the Pharisees, and Satan in Jesus films. Some of the films discussed include: Godspell (1973), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Intolerance (1916), Jesus (1999), Jesus of Montreal (1989), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The King of Kings (1927), King of Kings (1961), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Mary Magdalene (2018), The Passion of the Christ (2004), Son of God (2014), and Son of Man (2006). Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne and Dr. Brandon Hurlbert.

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In this episode of our Jesus Film series, we’re talking about costuming with Dr. Katie Turner. Dr. Turner is an independent scholar who completed her PhD at King’s College, London and has a forthcoming monograph, entitled, Costuming Christ (with T&T Clark). Over the course of our conversation we discussed the difference between ancient clothing and modern costuming in Jesus films, what evidence we have for ancient dress in the second temple period and the Greco-Roman world, and how Christian art informs costuming decisions in Jesus films and communicates certain exegetical decisions, some of which have harmful consequences. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne and Brandon Hurlbert.

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Continuing our series on Jesus films, we are joined in this episode by Dr. Siobhán Jolley to discuss the representation of Mary Magdalene. Dr. Jolley recently completed her PhD at the University of Manchester with a thesis entitled, “Reimaging the Magdalene: Liberative Reception Criticism and the Counter-Reformation Magdalene.” In our conversation Dr. Jolley talks to us about how little we actually know about Mary Magdalene from the Gospels themselves, and how her legend and myth evolves in art history and church history to present her as a sex worker, among other things. We review some of the films that reflect this tradition, esp. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988; dir. Martin Scorsese), and talk about how this portrayal is developed further than anywhere in Jesus films in the series, The Chosen (2017; dir. Dallas Jenkins). We also discuss the romantic relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene that develops in various aspects of Mary Magdalene’s reception, most notably in The Da Vinci Code (by Dan Brown), and we address the significance of that for the interest in the modern forgery of “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife.” Among other things we also chat about the rehabilitation of Mary’s character in the recent film simply entitled, Mary Magdalene (2018; dir. Garth Davis), starring Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne and Brandon Hurlbert.

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In this episode we discuss the relationship of scholarship on the Gospels and the historical Jesus with Dr. Mark Goodacre, who is Frances Hill Fox professor of Religious Studies at Duke University, the author of a number of important studies on the historical Jesus, the Gospels, particularly the Synoptic Problem, and the Gospel of Thomas, and the creator of one of the original biblioblogs, called NTBlog, as well as one of the original biblical studies podcasts, called the NTPod. Over the course of our conversation we discuss a number of aspects of Jesus films and how those relate to contemporary Gospels scholarship, including, the role of the imagination in historical reconstruction, the nature of Jesus’ self-understanding, first-century crucifixion, and the composition of the Gospels from earlier sources. Some of the Jesus films that we address at length include: Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal (1989), and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004). Team members on the episode from The Two Cities: Dr. Josh Carroll, Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Brandon Hurlbert, Rev. Daniel Parham, and Dr. Chris Porter.

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In this episode of our Jesus film series, we turn to discuss the art and theology that informs depictions of Jesus with Dr. Richard Walsh, who is Womack Professor of Philosophy and Religion and the Co-Director of the Honors Program at Methodist University. He’s also the author of a number of books on Jesus films, including Reading the Gospels in the Dark (Trinity Press International) and, more recently with Jeffrey Staley, Jesus, The Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination (T&T Clark). Other the course of our conversation, Dr. Walsh addresses some of the historic tensions behind depicting Jesus throughout cinematic history between depicting Jesus as more divine versus more human, more historically accurate versus more artistically resonant, more stoic versus more personable, etc. We also discuss this topic briefly in relation to iconoclastic concerns as well as Orthodox iconography. Most notably, Dr. Walsh situates Jesus in the place of the “Monster” in horror films, which leads to some fascinating discussion. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Stephanie Kate Judd, and Rev. Daniel Parham.

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In this episode we're kicking off a Summer series on Jesus films! Today we're joined by Matthew Page to talk about his new book, 100 Bible Films (published by The British Film Institute with Bloomsbury). In our conversation, Matthew talks about the history of movies according to Bible films. He highlights the ways that Bible films can teach us about cinema more broadly rather than strictly about the Bible, though he does address the topic of Bible films specifically as adaptations of literary source material. Key film discussions emerge around Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014) and mother! (2017), Amos Gitai's Esther (1986), and the must-be-watched-to-be-believed Assassin 33 A.D. (2020), which is our pick for the worst Bible film of all time. This conversation situates Jesus films within the broader phenomenon of Bible Films and sets up the next several episodes in our series nicely, where we will dive more deeply into Jesus films. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne and Brandon Hurlbert.

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In this episode we discuss the legacy of the famous German resource of Rabbinic parallels to the New Testament, referred to often as Strack-Billerbeck. For this we’re joined by Jacob Cerone, who is a doctoral candidate at the Friedrich Alexander Universität, in Erlagen, Germany, and General Editor and one of translators of the English translation of Strack-Billerbeck (published by Lexham Press). In our conversation, Jacob tells us about the people behind the well-known volume, both Hermann Strack and Paul Billerbeck respectively, as well as the context in which this resource was produced. Further, we discuss the legacy and reception of this resource as well as some of the critiques and concerns about it. Throughout the conversation Jacob provides helpful insights into the various ways that newcomers to Strack-Billerbeck can make use of this great resource in a careful and critical manner. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Jennifer Guo, and Dr. Logan Williams.

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In this episode we discuss the relevance of empire criticism for understanding Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with Dr. Justin Winzenburg, who is Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek, and the Director of the Honors Program at Crown College (St. Bonafacious, Minnesota). Dr. Winzenburg is also the author of the forthcoming volume that we discuss in this episode, Ephesians and Empire (Mohr Siebeck). In our conversation, Dr. Winzenburg situates his study within the context of broader empire criticism and the more specific application of that broader field to the writings of Paul. Notably, Ephesians is one of the least explored letters from the Pauline corpus for this broader conversation, and we discuss some of the reasons regarding why this is the case. But aside from merely addressing a neglected letter, Dr. Winzenburg explains how his thesis also expands the analysis of empire criticism through his fascinating application of Speech Act Theory, which creates exciting new avenues of investigation. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne and Rev. Daniel Parham.

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In this episode we're joined by Dr. Matthew Novenson, who is Senior Lecturer in New Testament at the University of Edinburgh, to talk about his new book, which is a collection of essays on Paul’s writings, entitled, Paul, Then and Now (published by Eerdmans). Dr. Novenson explains that this collection is meant to be more meta, considering the way we approach Paul hermeneutically. As part of this project, he is concerned to defamiliarize Paul for us, to make him "weird" again. Over the course of our conversation we talk about some of the things that makes Paul weird to us, particularly his eschatological anthropology, and how we should situate Paul relative to ancient Judaism and medieval  monotheism. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. Josh Carroll, Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Jennifer Guo, and Dr. Logan Williams.

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