Corbis

Not much passion for Christ: BAR editor Hershel Shanks, in his report on several academic meetings, laments the paucity of talks on the New Testament and early Christianity at the annual conference of ASOR (American Schools of Oriental Research), held in San Antonio this past November. At the meeting, the only presentation of early Christianity consisted of a plenary session on Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ. That discussion, however, ducked the question of the film’s historical accuracy or whether the film is anti-Semitic.