ABC continues its facsination with the historical Jesus tonight with “Jesus and Paul: The Word and the Witness,” and as Matt Hall rightly observes, the list of scholars for the show is lacking. This doesn’t come as surprise that ABC would get the usual suspects to debunk traditional understandings—every show they do seems to have John Dominic Crossan, who seems to be their anti-Christian theologian-on-retainter.
Although Robert Wilken says in the WSJ that “Peter Jennings gets it right,” I’m still not convinced it will be fair. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out. Looks like I’ll be taping the show because the NCCA championship is on at the same time.
UPDATE: Due to the dullness of the game and length of the commercials, I was able to watch most of the ABC special. The show was much what I expected—chicanery and speculation amidst a few traditionalist views—but this one had an even more postmodern feel than Jesus, Mary, & DaVinci. There were, of course, raging liberal theologians talking amidst a backdrop of panned medieval paintings. This time instead of eerie music in the background, there were modern gospel hip-hop and heavy metal tunes. The camera even shook to the music while it panned. Yeah, ABC, you’re down with it, yo.
Jared – I would be watching the NCAA Championship if you hadn’t demolished me in the ESPN bracket challenge the way you did. Oh the shame!