The Christ Files book and now TV documentary and DVD were conceived to "set the record straight" about Jesus, says the historian behind the project.
"Public perception is so wide of the mark that we need to set the record straight about the sources and methods that historians use," says Dr John Dickson.
Best known in church circles as a popular Christian author, Dr John Dickson says he is "far more of a historian than a theologian".
He remains firmly involved in academic life, assisting in the supervision of postgraduate students at Macquarie University's Department of Ancient History, where he is an honorary associate. This provides him with ample opportunity to wrestle with the latest ideas coming out of the secular historical study of Jesus.
"One very significant shift in recent scholarship " and it's one I've been able to help a recent student engage with " is to see the gospels not simply as literary works which copied and edited each other but as written renditions of oral tradition. Key scholars here are James Dunn, Richard Bauckham and others."
No surprise then that Professors James Dunn and Richard Bauckham from Durham University in the UK have a starring role in The Christ Files documentary.
John Dickson believes the public is sick of the over-the-top conspiracy theories about Jesus and is now ready to listen to the more mundane truths from the world's most reputable scholars.
"I do feel even the public are aware of the sensationalism now," he says. "The Da Vinci Code did us a big favour. "So many secular scholars said it was rubbish that people now cringe that the book was ever taken seriously."
Not Christian apologetics
Christians may nonetheless be surprised and perhaps even a little shocked by some of the evidence John Dickson considers in The Christ Files.
The documentary shows John visiting the Coptic Museum in Cairo where he holds the only copy of the second-century Gospel of Philip " the source for the claim Jesus married Mary Magdalene.
Others will be surprised to hear Professor Dunn's claim that many of the New Testament narratives are "re-performances of oral traditions'.
This, claims Dunn, is why some of these stories are "flexible' about facts on the periphery but word for word at the heart of the story. For example Luke includes three different versions of Paul's conversion story " Acts 9, 22 and 26.
Is John Dickson worried that this kind of evidence will trouble Christian belief in the inerrancy of Scripture?
"I hope not," he says. "It shouldn't… I think God is fine with the variation. God could have given us just one gospel or four gospels that said exactly the same thing. He didn't. He gave us four versions, and I believe these are all the very words God intended."
John hopes that Christian audiences will appreciate that the documentary "is not Christian apologetics".
"I am allowing mainstream historians to have a voice, whether they are Christian or secular - we also interview two Jewish scholars."
John says his aim was to "steer a path between the sceptical nonsense" and "Christian apologetics that tries to over-prove the case".
In fact, John is very uncomfortable with what he calls "evidential apologetics", which he says "abuses history".
Asked for an example, John cites one common apologetic claim that there is more historical evidence for Jesus than Julius Caesar, just because there are many ancient copies of the New Testament.
"You can't just add up the number of copies of a manuscript… once you take into account the archaeology, all the coins, the statues… this claim just isn't true."
John says this apologetic approach can make a theological mistake: that human arguments can "move people to Christ".
In contrast, John believes that we should just concentrate on doing "good history": "As it happens, the best history is not at all dangerous… It's actually quite good for the gospel".
Use in churches
The Christ Files documentary is not designed to convince people of Christ's divinity. So why should churches use it?
John says that many Christians have been exposed to popular myths about Jesus and this raises doubts that are hard to address from the pulpit.
"Christians are asking historical questions " about the gnostic gospels, about the archaeology " the average minister either isn't equipped or is worried some will find it too academic."
John sympathises with the questioners. Although he became a Christian at high school when he was "overwhelmed by Christ", after he became a Christian he started having doubts around some of these historical questions. This sparked his interest in early Christian history.
"The more I read, the more I realised that there are no questions you can put to the Jesus of the gospels that cannot be adequately answered."
If churches use the documentary with a non-Christian audience, John suggests they also have a course ready for those who want to explore Christianity further. But adds he plans to fill that gap too.
"I have always wanted to do a really clear presentation of Jesus' life, filmed in the Holy Land, that calls on people to follow him."
Filming begins in September.
