Jesus and Brian Conference and the Parables

I am packed and heading to Heathrow in a few minutes, but I thought I'd share one more photo from the Jesus and Brian conference. Guy Stiebel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) gave an excellent lecture on Saturday: "Identity and Expressions of Resistance in Judaea."

In his lecture he showed the following very ironic slide to illustrate that we should have humility in our interpretations of texts, archeology, etc.

There is a big difference between confidence and over-confidence, between monologic discourse and dialogic discourse--the latter is exemplified by the parables.

It was a happy accident that I was doing research in London at the same time as this conference (I signed up at the last minute just for the Saturday sessions and the John Cleese dinner event). It led me to think that I might use part of the Life of Brian film in my reception history of the parables book. I do not yet have any films represented, and Life of Brian is a good foil, among others, for discussing what happened to the Jesus traditions once people, including scholars, got their ears/hands on them.