{"id":20852,"date":"2013-12-31T21:54:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T02:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=20852"},"modified":"2013-12-31T22:08:25","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T03:08:25","slug":"anglican-theologian-declares-life-of-brian-is-really-a-heavily-disguised-tribute-to-the-life-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/anglican-theologian-declares-life-of-brian-is-really-a-heavily-disguised-tribute-to-the-life-of-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Anglican theologian declares \u201cLife of Brian\u201d is a heavily disguised tribute to the life of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One Britain\u2019s most respected Anglican theologians (who <em>respects<\/em> Anglican theologians these days? Answer: other Anglican theologians) has decided that Monty Python\u2019s <em>Life of Brian <\/em>is not blasphemous but a tribute to Jesus, thus confirming what most of us already know: it really is blasphemous \u2013 funny, perhaps but still blasphemous.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/news.nationalpost.com\/2013\/12\/31\/maybe-monty-pythons-life-of-brian-wasnt-blasphemous-after-all-theologian-says-church-missed-true-message\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It was once denounced as blasphemous and an insult to Christians, but Monday one of Britain\u2019s most respected theologians insisted that Monty Python\u2019s <em>Life of Brian<\/em> is in fact a \u201cremarkable tribute to the life of Jesus\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Rev. Prof. Richard Burridge, Dean of King\u2019s College London, said that Christians who called for the satire to be banned after its release in 1979 were \u201cembarrassingly\u201d ill-informed and missed a major opportunity to promote the Christian message.<\/p>\n<p>[\u2026..]<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cThey were satirizing closed minds, they were satirizing fundamentalism and persecution of others and at the same time saying the one person who rises above all this was Jesus \u2026 and I think that the Church missed that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Satirising fundamentalism is de rigueur for Anglican theologians \u2013 I suspect there is a non-optional course on it in seminary \u2013 but only <i>Christian <\/i>fundamentalism. Neither Anglican theologians &#8211; a congenitally poltroonish bunch at the best of times &#8211; nor Monty Python have the temerity to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2530920\/You-parody-Islam-says-Palin-Monty-Python-star-believes-religious-sensitivities-increased-impossible-make-Life-Brian-today.html\" target=\"_blank\">mock<\/a> Islamic fundamentalism:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>During his Monty Python days he poked fun at everyone from the Establishment to Christianity.<\/p>\n<p>But thanks to the threat of \u2018heavily armed\u2019 fanatics, Michael Palin has admitted there is one comedy taboo he is too scared to break- Islam.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One Britain\u2019s most respected Anglican theologians (who respects Anglican theologians these days? Answer: other Anglican theologians) has decided that Monty Python\u2019s Life of Brian is not blasphemous but a tribute to Jesus, thus confirming what most of us already know: &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/anglican-theologian-declares-life-of-brian-is-really-a-heavily-disguised-tribute-to-the-life-of-jesus\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[1748,1103,1749],"class_list":["post-20852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-and-culture","tag-life-of-brian","tag-monty-python","tag-rev-prof-richard-burridge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}