SBL Forum on The Passion of the Christ

The March edition of the SBL Forum is now available and the special theme is The Passion of the Christ with this blurb:

Mel Gibson's controversial film, The Passion of The Christ, stirs emotion, reflection, and debate. This month, SBL Forum focuses on biblical studies and film, and the cinematic representation of Jesus and biblical accounts.

There are several very interesting looking essays:

Biblical Allusions, Biblical Illusions: Hollywood Blockbuster and Scripture
by Nicola Denzey
"Despite the claim of the majority of Americans that religion (by which most mean Christianity) is important, despite their claims to attend church services regularly, knowledge of the Bible is often confined to sound-bytes or pseudo-scripture. In this environment, Gibson must see The Passion of the Christ as vitally corrective."

Filming Jesus: Between Authority and Heresy
by Paul V. M. Flesher
and Robert Torry
"Jesus films are about the meaning of Jesus, not about the reality of Jesus. While the depiction of Scripture, as well as the appeal to history, tradition, and theology, help authorize the scenes added into the film, it is the additions that impose their meaning upon Scripture and not vice-versa."

History, Hollywood, and the Bible: Some Thoughts on Gibson's Passion
by Paula Fredriksen

Judas the Film: Storytellers Then and Now
by John Dart
"Starkly different from Gibson's experiment with Aramaic and Latin dialogue, Judas has Jesus conversing in contemporary English."

The Problem of the Cinematic Jesus
by W. Barnes Tatum
"In academic circles and within the SBL itself, there has been a surge of interest in cinema generally and in the Jesus-genre specifically. Not only are commercially produced Jesus-films used in classroom settings but entire semester courses are dedicated to them."

Barnes Tatum's article features a link to the NT Gateway and a little blurb -- nice to see.