FROM youtube/watch?v=ZegjCgfiIsk When the Life of Brian first came out, I was a gung-ho, born-again, evangelical Christian in seminary, studying for ministry. Even though I found parts of the film hilarious (I tried not to laugh), other parts – not. Some of these were predictably offensive to a pious sensitivity (“Always look on the bright side of life”!); but one was not, a scene that received relatively little critical attention: when Brian finds himself among a group of street preachers proclaiming messages of coming apocalyptic doom. I strove hard to assure everyone I knew that first-century Palestine as not “like” that, filled with prophets anticipating the coming apocalypse – mainly because I realized what was at stake. If this was the context for Jesus’ own proclamation (not to mention Brian’s) then he was as duped as the others, and he did not stand out as the unique son of God with an unparalleled divine revelation. Now twenty-five later I realize just how wrong I was. As in so many other ways, the Life of Brian was humorously, but also incisively, on target. The widespread apocalyptic movement of Jesus’ day was indeed the milieu that makes best sense of his own message.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 11:45:34 +0000
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