Followers

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Success of Bible Series Hard to Assess


Roma Downey, of Touched by an Angel Fame, and husband Mark Burnett said their "greatest hope" in making the History Channel series was that it would "affect a new generation of viewers and draw them back to the Bible."

The 5-episode series on the History Channel has moved from Adam and Eve to the second coming of Jesus Christ. According to the Bible scholar Peter Enns, Downey and Burnett were "focusing on the final stage of the Bible story, which is Christ’s appearance.”

He suggests that the choices they made were because they "take a celebrity approach to The Bible, and highlight the figures people know and present them in ways that make it seem that when you get to Jesus, you’ll feel that this was how it was meant to be all along.”

In a day when celebrities draw greater public attention than is healthy, the "celebrity approach" appears to be effective. However, it has yet to be seen whether the series affected "a new generation of viewers" and has drawn them "back to the Bible."

Read more reflections on the series.

How I would Have Plotted Out the Bible Series by Peter Enns

An Afterlife in Sequel Series from Mark Burnett and Roma Downey by David Hinckley

History Channel Bible Series Scores a C by Alice C. Linsley 

History Channel's Bible: Episode 2 by Alice C. Linsley

Episode 3: The Messiah Appears by Alice C. Linsley

No comments: