A unique, exhaustively researched viewers guide to movies about Jesus that takes readers film-by-film from Olcott's silent classic From the Manger to the Cross (1912) through Dornford- May's Son of Man (2006). Drawing on his experience as a biblical scholar and teacher on religion and film, Barnes Tatum looks at Jesus films in all their dimensions: as cinematic art, literature, biblical history, and theology. A fascinating analysis of all the Jesus movies that have been made since the beginning of cinematography.

Since the earliest days of the movies more than a century ago, moviemakers have been intrigued by "the greatest story ever told." They have tried, with varying degrees of success, to capture the life of Jesus on film. In Jesus at the Movies Barnes Tatum has created a fascinating and exhaustively-researched viewer's guide to the movies about Jesus. Tatum guides the reader film-by-film from Sidney Olcott's silent classic "From the Manger to the Cross" through Denis Arcand's award-winning "Jesus of Montreal" to the future of Jesus movies. With his experience as author, biblical scholar, and teacher on religion and film, he presents this unique look at Jesus films in all dimensions: as cinematic art, as literature, as biblical history and as theology.

Characterizations of Jesus abound: dying Savior, monk, or troublemaker, for example. But who is Jesus? Who "was" Jesus really? By surveying literary sources (including the Gospels), historical reconstructions, and aspects of Jesus life and ministry that have engendered continuing debate, Tatum enables readers to develop a conceptual framework for evaluating the various cultural and scholarly expressions of the Jesus story."

These and other questions concerning the historical John the Baptist and Jesus are answered in this provocative and lucid report prepared by W. Barnes Tatum. The Jesus Seminar has considered all the historical evidence related to John the Baptist found in the gospels, Josephus, the documents known as the Pseudo-Clementines, and the traces of the Baptist tradition preserved in Mandaeism, a baptizing sect that continues to exist in southern Iraq and neighboring Iran. This volume contains a summary of the deliberations and votes of the Seminar, together with a concise sketch of the historical figure of John the Baptist.