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Christianity Today, December, 2007 |

When the Media Became a Nuisance

How to respond to the next blockbuster book/documentary/movie that questions traditional Christianity.

Darrell Bock | posted 12/12/2007 09:24AM

Not long ago, topics like textual criticism and the extra-biblical Gospels elicited yawns from my seminary students. I went through the obligatory motions of covering these staples of New Testament study, ...

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Cobus Prinsloo

Posted: December 19, 2007 2:32 PM


Thank you -- I have long waited for an article such as this one! Amen to your proposed responses from Christians on these new challenges. I wish more churches will start to take things more seriously.

andy christ

Posted: December 18, 2007 10:49 AM

There are only a few sanctified. Others become sick during trials. Jersulum was defeated. Moses raised his arms and warriors continued to fight and win. Jesus today needs warriors. I am being poisoned and police have never questioned about crime. Other corruption.FDA approves blood thining drugs that cause diabetes on purpose. Seriously. They give it psychotics. Police are out numbered by mobs. They should do a campaign for decent officers in small mob controled towns. Mobs run for sheriff. Jesus wants Total submission. listen every second for God the father. Faith in forgiveness from God. Psalms 99:9-hillpray. Please fight these evil USA mobs or death from God or evil. Gal 3:2. 1 corinth 14:26. Every movement about love. Chichasha OK- isreal. Proverbs 19 20 21. Amen!

Robert

Posted: December 14, 2007 11:30 AM

Having studied under Dr. Bock, I can say that he is someone for whom I have a lot of respect. However, Darrell is wasting his enormous talents by focusing on the worst popular culture has to offer. The last thing we need to be spend money on, when half the world's population lives on $1 a day. is entertainment in the guise of scholarship. This is exactly what the shows he sites are. Hyping the latest new thing to sell more ads. Having read Darrell's Da Vinci Code book, mostly out of curiousity after the WSJ named it the best of the bunch (but did we really need 25+ books debunking the DVC?), which while well written, missed the point that most people liked the book, not because of its ridiculous assertions about Jesus, but in spite of them, finding it an entertaining read. NG's translation work on gospel of Judas has already been discredited by secular scholars with no dog in this fight. We don't need to join this silly parade of nonsense, nor defend against it, but to rise above it.

Nichael Cramer

Posted: December 13, 2007 10:37 AM

I think what I find most problematic about this article is the notion that all of this is somehow new; as opposed to what it really is, simply a change in emphasis. For example, the writer notes above that "[S]cholars' books were usually fact-checked and peer-reviewed by other experts before being released." That may be true in strictly scholarly publications, but that's not really the issue here. Rather, the only thing that has changed in the last few years is the appearance of popular books by mainstream, non-evangelical scholars such as Borg and Crossan. One need only thumb through a listing of the vast majority of books and television programs that have present a strictly traditionalist view, while offering the likes of Jerry Fawell and Pat Robertson as "biblical scholars". Bias may be a problem here. But it's hardly new and certainly not one-sided.

Ephrem Hagos

Posted: December 13, 2007 3:04 AM

Christianity today is not what it used to be in the 1st Century. Where have all of "God's powerful weapons" gone that were used to destroy strongholds and false arguments and to pull down proud obstacles raised against the knowledge of God and to take every thought capture and make it obey to Christ? (2 Cor. 10: 4-6). In Christianbity today, there is no firsthand and personal knowledge of Christ as is possible! That is why Christians are completely powerless and oversensitive in the face of a hostile world which wants to know the truth. Without knowing ourselves who Jesus Christ is, as taught and introduced in His teachings (largely neglected), we do not have a chance at all to stand on our assumed "faith". It is neither the media which became a nuisance; nor the world which is the enemy of the cross of Christ. Hard as it may be to believe, it is us! The problem is Christianity, full of theology, but without Christ and His Gospel; without the answers to life.

p	Posted: December 13, 2007 3:02 AM


Under the pressure of post-modern density of population, everything's changed.

Ernie Lee Martin

Posted: December 12, 2007 11:50 PM

Your wonderful suggestion that: "We need to produce our own first-class documentaries to be aired on TV channels outside of Christian broadcasting" is something I whole-heartedly agree with. As an award winning PBS producer for over a decade I am currently about to embark on such a mission. The audience is armchair travelers/history buffs and the general Christian and secular media. I am just beginnig my search for supporters, meaning moral support and financial. Do you have any suggestion as to where to begin to look into the possibility? MartinMedia@mac.com My website is : http://homepage.mac.com/martinmedia Thank You, Ernie Lee Martin

Prosanto K. Mukerji

Posted: December 12, 2007 11:05 PM


Being a devout Christian from India, I do find such publications as a disturbing trend, especially in pluralistic society where other faiths, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam are able to shield themselves. Unfortunately, fundamental Christians have to share the blame for pushing Christian faint as black and white with out any ambiguity. God bless us.

Mike	Posted: December 12, 2007 4:43 PM


I think it was a great article. People need to be educated on Bible and all areas related to it. The problem is that it is a slow process. It is not like CSI where it will be figured out in an hour. Church leaders need to prepare people. First of all to know the truth and secondly to speak the truth in love.

Anonymous

Posted: December 12, 2007 1:40 PM


The only thing I would add is that as we educate our churches we do not need to limit ourselves to merely "Evangelical" voices. There are many very good Christian scholars who are not necessarily "Evangelical" who we could be reading including John Meier, Raymond Brown, LT Johnson, and more.

John	Posted: December 12, 2007 12:39 PM

Religion, like science and archeaology, is ultimately a search for truth. People who argue that Jesus may have been married, or that a Gnostic Gospel has some relevance, at least are debating on the Christian playground. Better to have Hitchens or Dawkins who say this is all poppycock anyway? If Borg (who I have read and like although he is a little flower child-like for me) and Crossan make good points, why not consider them. Christianity has gone from the Apostles to the early persecuted Church to the Roman Church to the Catholic Church post-Rome to the Reformation to the Anabaptist rebellion to the rise of the modern Dispensationalist movement at the turn of the last century. Along the way theologies have changed, been adopted, and then discarded, and the Church goes on. The more voices that seek the truth, the better.

JH	Posted: December 12, 2007 12:05 PM


there is scripture teaching on how we should approach non-believers - and each other. When we beat each other up because (y)our response didn't meet my (your) criteria we confuse and discourage Christians who might not have the resources ready to meet these challenges. The controversy over the "golden compass" is a case in point.

Chuck Pitts

Posted: December 12, 2007 11:46 AM

Great discussion, but what has really changed. As academic publishing changed in the 18th century, so popular publishing and readership has changed in the late 20th and 21st. Books like those by Borg and Crossan were once (and not too long ago) relegated to ivory towers, libraries, and classrooms. Now they are mainstream. It seems to me that this is what has changed. We must remember that "great discoveries" in archaeology were once touted as "proof" of the veracity of the Bible. Drs. Bock and Dever on a show together is interesting, since Dever once fought the tendency to use archaeology just to prove the "truth" of biblical events. The fact that these two scholars from very different camps can agree on this matter also shows a positive change in the academic and popular media world.

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