wfn.org | 'From Jesus To Christ' To Air On PBS

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

CONTACT: 	Thomas S. McAnally
(10-71BP){147}
   	    	Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470	 March 12, 1998

NOTE:  A photograph is available with this story

'From Jesus to Christ: the First Christians'
to air on PBS stations April 6 and 7

by United Methodist News Service

	The life of Jesus and the movement he started, with some
challenges to familiar assumptions and conventional notions about the
origins of Christianity, will be aired April 6 and 7 on Public
Broadcasting Service stations (check local listings).
	Scheduled to coincide with Holy Week and Passover, "From Jesus
to Christ: The First Christians" uses fresh historical evidence to
transport viewers back 2,000 years to the time and place where Jesus
lived and preached.
	Two years in development and production, the program relies on
interviews with New Testament scholars, historians and archaeologists
who represent a wide variety of faiths and beliefs. 
Interviewees will include Elizabeth Clark and Eric Meyers of Duke
University, Durham, N.C., and Paula Fredriksen of Boston University,
both United Methodist-related schools.
	"Good history plays no favorites," says Michael White, of the
University of Texas at Austin, principal historical adviser for the
series. "Everybody gets a jolt somewhere along the way out of this. No
matter where you're coming from, you're going to find something you
didn't know."
	A discussion guide for viewers and additional information on
research and discoveries concerning Jesus' life and the rise of
Christianity can be found on the Internet: www.pbs.org/frontline.
	The first two-hour program traces the life of Jesus of Nazareth,
exploring the message that helped his ministry grow and events that led
to his crucifixion. The program then turns to the period that followed
Jesus' death, examining the rise of Christianity and concluding with the
First Revolt -- the bloody and violent siege of Jerusalem and the
beginning of a rift between Christianity and Judaism. The broadcast
explores new evidence suggesting that Jesus' followers, because of their
diversity and the difference in their cultures and languages, looked at
and interpreted Jesus and his teachings in many different ways.
	The second two-hour program examines the period after the First
Revolt, tracing the development and impact of the Gospels and looking at
the increasingly hostile relationship between the Christians and Jews.
The program looks at another bloody Jewish war against Rome, the Second
Revolt, assessing its impact on the Christianity movement. The program
documents the extraordinary events of the second and third centuries, in
which Christianity grew from a small Jewish sect to an official religion
of the Roman Empire.
	"From Jesus to Christ" was produced by FRONTLINE, a consortium
of public television stations in Boston, Detroit, Miami, New York and
Seattle.
	Funding from FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS
viewers. Additional funding for "From Jesus to Christ" is provided by
the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
	FRONTLINE is closed-captioned.
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