V. Henry T. Nguyen on Jesus Films

Apologies to Henry Nguyen for taking so long to post this! Henry has a paper titled "The Quest for the Cinematic Jesus: Scholarly Explorations in Jesus Films" in the current edition of Currents in Biblical Research [Vol. 8 (2010) pp. 183–2006].

You do have to pay to view it (unless your institution is already registered), but it's an interesting overview of the study of Jesus films thus far. Here's the abstract:

This article looks at an emerging research trend in biblical studies: Jesus and film. Within the past two decades, New Testament scholars have been attracted to the numerous films about Jesus not merely as a source of illustrations, but as an avenue to interpret the New Testament Gospels—or as Larry Kreitzer proposes, ‘reversing the hermeneutical flow’. With a growing interest in this new discipline to the task of biblical interpretation, it has become an accepted critical approach to the study of Jesus and the Gospels. This article surveys some various ways in which scholars have explored Jesus films, such as with a view to provide refreshing insights into difficult scholarly issues (e.g. the Synoptic problem). Furthermore, the article examines how scholars have begun in recent years to function as critics of controversial Jesus films and also as consultants for new film projects.

I'll add this to my sidebar when I make some long overdue changes in a little while.