Stories related to: Jesus Christ

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, best known for directing films like Robocop , Basic Instinct , and Total Recall , is releasing a biography of Jesus which is bound to spark an angry response, reports AP. The book, which Verhoeven has been working on for 20 years, suggests that Jesus' father was a Roman soldier who raped Mary. The director hopes the book will lead to a film. More »

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Easter Mass today, hailing the miracle of conversion, "which renews itself even today" before a rain-soaked crowd in St. Peter's Square and calling for an end to hostilities in "Darfur and Somalia, the tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon, and Tibet." His address followed the controversial baptism of a high-profile Muslim journalist, BBC reports. More »

Christmas’ religious meaning is lost in a sea of advertising, parties, and major retail dollars, but Easter has resisted becoming a “consumerist nightmare”—and that’s because its Christian origins demand serious thought, writes James Martin in Slate . While “the Christmas story is easily reduced to pablum,” Easter’s story of crucifixion and resurrection is “relentlessly disconcerting,” Martin observes. More »

Britain's House of Lords voted yesterday to abolish blasphemy laws after an international incident sparked debate over secularism and tradition, the Los Angeles Times reports. With the UK and Sudan at odds in November over the prosecution of a British teacher allowing students to name a teddy bear Mohammad, many pointed out the hypocrisy of having a similar measure on common-law books. More »

The lighting of a four-story tree yesterday in Bethlehem kicked off a joyous season of increased tourism, reports the AP, amid a backdrop of resumed Mideast peace talks. Some 65,000 foreigners are expected to visit the West Bank town this season, the AP reports; only 16,000 visited the famous town two years ago. "The town greatly benefits from this," one resident said. More »

Mitt Romney is rebutting Mike Huckabee’s suggestion that Mormons believe Jesus and Satan are brothers, saying Huckabee “is really going too far” by “attacking” his religion. The former Massachusetts governor said it’s “just not the American way” to impugn personal beliefs. Mormon faith does not describe Jesus and Satan as brothers, the AP reports, but rather conforms to the Biblical account. More »

Hollywood is making a new film about the alleged "lost years" of Jesus—an action-adventure tale set in India. "In the film we are looking beyond the canonized gospels to the 'lost' gospels," the producer of Aquarian Gospel tells the Guardian . The film will feature computer animation and a "young and beautiful" princess, but will focus on "the principles that are the bedrock of all the world's great religions." More »

A Christianity Today article that reinterprets Jesus Christ’s stance against divorce has sparked anger among evangelicals, Time reports, while also revealing diminished opposition to breaking the marital sacrament. The piece argues that, in a key scripture passage, Jesus might have been giving his opinion on a certain kind of divorce and not against the practice entirely—perhaps giving evangelicals an out. More »

GodTube, one of the fastest-growing sites on the web, is drawing masses of the Christian faithful to its user-generated videos, social-networking tools and the "GodCaster," which offers live video presentations. It's not a church, the LA Times reports, but a for-profit business backed by a "who's who" of ministries, megachurches and Christian retailers. More »

In downplaying his Mormonism, Mitt Romney is a candidate “who seems to have no history, and, as a result, no heart,” argues Newsweek . When Mitt boasts of his “Judeo-Christian tradition” roots, calls Jesus his “personal savior”—not Mormon terms—and says he hasn’t “recently” performed peculiar rituals, he deepens his authenticity problem. More »

Rudy Giuliani has compared critics of his personal life to the biblical villagers Jesus rebuked when he said, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” The Republican frontrunner cited the parable in a Christian Broadcasting Network interview, saying those who take issue with his three marriages are not themselves faultless, the AP reports. More »

A book and documentary produced by Titanic 's James Cameron claims to identify the burial place of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and a son, Judah. The documentary, which Newsweek calls "a slick and suspenseful narrative," asserts that 10 bone boxes found in 1980 in a first-century burial cave in Jerusalem once contained the bones of Christ and his family. More »