TY - THES ID - 138047729 TI - Monty Python's 'Life of Brian': Anglican, Catholic and Jewish Responses to an Alleged Blasphemy in England AU - Golovko, Sovay AU - McDonald, James AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Theologie en Religiewetenschappen. Opleiding Bachelor of Theology and Religious Studies (Abridged Programme) (Leuven) PY - 2021 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Theologie en Religiewetenschappen DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:138047729 AB - The film, “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”, released in 1979, has continued to cause a vast variety of controversial responses among many global religious communities worldwide. The dissimilarity of reception is absolutely overwhelming: it ranges from official condemnations and appeals to local blasphemy laws - to whole-hearted laughter and support for this whimsical view of the I century Palestine. “’Monty Python’s Life of Brian’ provoked a furious response in some quarters when the film first appeared in 1979, even leading to cries of ‘blasphemy’. However, many students and teachers of biblical literature were quietly, or even loudly, amused” , writes Joan. E. Taylor. However, what are the conditions underpinning this severance of opinions? The aim of this research is to conduct a comparative analysis of responses within the same topographical culture of most widely spread Christian denominations of England: Anglicanism and Catholicism, with the Jewish community of England used as a control group. This way, we can make an attempt at bringing out what determines the reception of this particular film as amusing (humorous) or blasphemous. In order to reach this aim, we are to achieve these objectives: • To establish operable definitions for the key terms: blasphemy, the comic, humour, laughter, etc.; • To look into the historic background of “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”: cultural profile of the creators, main themes and topics employed of the film, its goals; • To acquaint ourselves with the historical context and conditioning of the blasphemy law in the UK from the time of its introduction to its abolition; • To make an overview of the way the film was received in the Anglican, Catholic and Jewish communities of England in the period from 1979 to the present, based on the periodicals and existing research works on the topic; • To draw a comparative analysis from the data, obtained upon achievement of the previous objectives. The conclusion of the research should represent the factors, which draw the line between the comic and the blasphemous in the reviewed context. ER -