BOTR,
From the unwashed,illiterate and unshriven backwaters of the universe I have noticed that a university experience expands the world of knowledge but doesn't teach those who achieve such privilege how NOT to be rude and supercilious when it is least called for. That is learned elsewhere.
When are you going to learn this lesson?
Of the authors whose writings I have read--and they are many---it happens that only Bart Ehrman was asked the question that gave rise to my recommendation of Jesus of Montreal. This innocent bit of trivia was offered as I found it somewhat of a novelty that Bart Ehrman would have selected this particular film.
A fair question from you might have been"Why?" Then I might have answered you thus:
An esteemed (by some)academic who began his career as an evangelical Christian, he is now an agnostic. Now, you do know he didn't write the script--but since his criticisms of biblical texts are well known on the board, it was interesting to view the texture this provided as I watched the film--and maybe will for others. The writer/director, Arcand presented it a thought-provoking and surprising way,possibilities not simply of the historical material of Jesus' existence but of the value of some of the teachings quite apart from the dogma of orthodoxy. It was a drama within a drama within a drama.
Again, I was/am curious about how such a seeker as Ehrman would name this film. I would be likewise curious of other writers' film favorites. But no one has spoken up. For this I get your curled lip and the imputation that I and others on the board read no one but Bart Ehrman? And in case I miss your disdain, you add "I suppose there is no accounting for taste."
I would be pleased to provide you with my reading list if that would exculpate me from your snide suggestion no one on the board reads anything but Ehrman.
Band-o,we each live in the center of our life's drama. But even if we feel that we deserve top billing for our knowledge and erudition and our pain and the breadth of our experience, the fact is we DO share the stage with others more or less who also have something to add to the community. It would be crass for me not to say that the board is enriched by what you provide when you are not speaking in a high-handed way.
-- But this time I am telling you to back off of my small post. This post simply invites others to see a movie. Just- see- a -movie. Because I want you also to imagine that even the bit players here should be treated with more respect from you.
Maeve
