Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Helen Bond on the Apocalyptic Jesus (and Doctor Who!)

Helen Bond's latest op-ed piece on Bible and Interpretation is an enjoyable piece on The Relevance of an Apocalyptic Jesus including this gem:
Against this background, a non-apocalyptic Jesus sounds oddly complacent, stuck in an 80s time warp, when the only thing to rail about was conspicuous consumption and social inequalities. Of course, these things are important, and I don’t doubt that Jesus had something to say on the matter, but in a modern context these reconstructions seem to lack an important dimension. There is no point in teaching others to fiddle a better tune if Rome is about to burn all around you.
It's naturally a pleasure to see that other NT colleagues enjoy Doctor Who, but Helen is clearly not a geek, as this comment shows:
Over Christmas and New Year, six-million people in Britain tuned in to the popular TV series Dr Who, in a lengthy two-part special called "The End of the World" (luckily David Tennant averted disaster).
The two-parter was actually called "The End of Time", though Helen is quite right that its apocalyptic scenario witnesses to some taste for such things among the British public, who gave the two parts unprecedented appreciation indexes of 87 and 89 respectively. Helen's viewing figures are grossly underestimated; the total viewing figures for each episode were in fact over twelve million (source: Blogtor Who). If I were being really geeky, perhaps I might add too that while David Tennant clearly "averted disaster" he did so at the expense of his own identity, and now we have Matt Smith to look forward to.
at

4 comments:

  1. Helen Bond3 February 2010 at 06:29

    Oh Mark, you really are a geek!! I've already been corrected for my grossly underestimated figures by Ann. I have to admit to being a bit of a Dr Who fan, though. Tom Baker was 'my' doctor, though he's been more than surpassed by recent incarnations (though I do miss the lack of shaky scenery in the new series, not to mention the scary Davros). We'll have to see how the new man goes . . .
    All the best,
    Helen

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mark Goodacre3 February 2010 at 08:09

    Ha ha, thanks, Helen. Yes, I'm a fan of the classic series too; I always think of Jon Pertwee as my doctor.

    There was a good bit of Davros at the end of the 2008 series, but no shaky sets.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mhelfield3 February 2010 at 10:22

    Hi Mark,

    I too am a huge Doctor Who fan. I am eager to see how the new Doctor does; I really miss David Tennant.

    Did you by chance read the article from Greece and Rome:

    History Meets Fiction in Doctor Who, ‘The Fires of Pompeii’: A BBC Reception of Ancient Rome on Screen and Online
    FIONA HOBDEN
    Greece and Rome (Second Series), Volume 56, Issue 02,

    I thought you, Helen, and other Doctor Who fans might appreciate it.

    Sincerely,

    Michael Helfield

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mark Goodacre3 February 2010 at 23:08

    Thanks, Michael. I haven't seen that so I look forward to looking it out.

    ReplyDelete