Media today pour forth speech at a nonstop rate. All it takes to make an exposé of biblical history is the money to film someone with a Dr. before his or her name, a few "experts" on ancient Near Eastern history, footage of exotic locales, and pan shots of the history of biblical paintings. Voilà. You have a special that fills the "black holes" of public knowledge about the Bible. It can make for compelling TV viewing, as facts and interpretations are mixed and matched in a way sure to generate water-cooler discussions around the country—quite a change from times when religion was a matter of hushed, private discussion.
This new media reality has introduced what I call "conversation stoppers" for Christians. Conversation stoppers are those questions that nearly everyone on the street knows to ask when the sensitive subject of Jesus comes up. They might say, "Well, what about all those other Gospels that never made it into the Bible?" Or, "Don't you know that history is written by the winners, and now that we can hear the losers, we need to revise the Bible's story?"
Read on at Christianity Today 12 Dec 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment