Day Two of Jesus and Brian

Day Two of Jesus and Brian
I continue this coverage of the Life of Brian and the
Historical Jesus conference with the second-day post by Mark
Goodacre.
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Jesus and Brian Conference, Day 2
William Telford and Mark Goodacre
After a wonderful first day, the Jesus and Brian conference
began again on Saturday morning with a paper from one of the
real gurus of Jesus films, William Telford. He had a superb
series of reflections on the ways in which the Life of
Brian parodies the Jesus films, and his paper was superbly
performed. He does not just read his paper, in the manner all
too common in the guild, but he acts it.
stuff.
It was compelling
Just as compelling was the second paper, “Monty Python’s Life
of
Philip Davies and James Crossley
Jesus”, in which first Philip Davies and then James Crossley
took a more subversive look at the film and argued that it is
not quite so benign in its intentions as it is depicted by
Burridge and others. After a coffee break, Helen Bond gave an
eloquent and fascinating paper on laughing at crucifixion.
Helen Bond
The quality of the papers continued to be high. Guy Stiebel
from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem talked about “Romanti
Ite Domum: Identity and Expressions of Resistance in Judaea”,
with fine use of Powerpoint, including one picture of some
kind of ancient phallus, which caused lots of sniggers (and
some remarks about “bigus dickus”).
Steve Mason
Last night I blogged about my hunger after the canape
reception, but today I was forced eat my words after we were
treated to a delicious sandwich lunch, and I was even invited
into the speakers’ room where I got to hang out with the
swells. I do miss nice British sandwiches, so it was a treat,
and I sneaked one last one in to enjoy with the first
afternoon paper, Steve Mason on “What have the Romans ever
done for us?”, a really fascinating study of first century
politics and relations between Judaea and Rome, with superb
use of Powerpoint (and it’s not often that you can say that).
Paula Fredriksen
After Steve Mason came one of my favourite scholars, Paula
Fredriksen. I must admit that I still feel a little starstruck
whenever I talk to her. Her paper was called “Are you a
virgin? Biblical Exegesis and the Invention of Tradition” and
the best use of clips from the film — each short clip was
followed by some reflections on the Biblical text.
The last session of the day kicked off with a fascinating
piece by David Shepherd, who explored another Biblical
parody, Wholly Moses, starring Dudley Moore, which was
something of a critical and commercial failure.
Shepherd
showed several clips and explored the difficulties with the
film.
The second of his clips, in which Dudley Moore as
Hershel “does God” after having come down from the mountain I
found hysterically funny, so much so that when my head fell
backwards I knocked someone’s bag off their desk. The last
paper of the day was given by Aaron Rosen, who talked about
“Sonofagod: Images of Jesus in Contemporary Art”.
There was just enough time in between the end of the formal
programme and the conference banquet for a swift pint in a
German style bierkeller with big screens showing the World
Cup, and we just caught Argentina beating Iran 1-0 in the
closing minutes.
The conference dinner took place in the Inner Temple
was hosted by Robin Griffith-Jones.
Earlier in
Richard Burridge had mentioned that he would try
chance to introduce me to John Cleese, and I was
that he did so.
Hall, and
the day,
to get a
delighted
Here, for posterity is the pic.:
Richard Burridge, John Cleese, and Mark Goodacre
Joan Taylor kindly took the picture. I was delighted to get
the chance to chat to Cleese, who was utterly delightful. At
the dinner itself, the top brass sat on high table with
Cleese, with Fredriksen to his left, Griffith-Jones to his
right, and Bart Ehrman opposite.The food was excellent and the
wine flowed pretty freely. Afterwards, Cleese gave a short
speech and then invited attendees to ask him questions about
the film, with Michelle going around with the mic. Cleese
dealt graciously and amusingly with each of the questions and
I could have listened to him all evening. A really marvellous
occasion.
Sadly, this wrapped up my attendance at a wonderful
conference. I had a conference in Roskilde, Denmark, to get
to, on Luke’s Rewritten Bible (on which, more anon), so I
jumped on the tube to Victoria and the train to Gatwick, in
time to grab a couple of hours’ sleep before my early morning
flight.
The conference did continue today (Sunday) with several great
speakers including A-J Levine, Adele Reinhartz and Bart
Ehrman.
I would also really have liked to hear Richard
Burridge’s talk about the Malcolm Muggeridge and Bishop
Stockwood programme. Perhaps I’ll be able to catch up via the
conference video. As far as I could tell the whole thing was
being video-ed.
This pic. is nicked from the T & T Clark twitter feed, via Jim
West’s blog, and depicts Joan Taylor interviewing film editor
Julian Doyle:
Joan Taylor and Julian Doyle
It’s appropriate to conclude with a picture of Joan Taylor,
who did so much hard work to make this conference a success.
It was a brilliant idea for a conference, superbly organized,
with tons of amazing papers from top people. And, of course,
John Cleese.
Did I mention that I met John Cleese?