‘Ben-Hur’ scholar Miller to speak at Crawfordsville museum Thursday

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- This Thursday, Sept. 29, Dr. Howard Miller will present “2016: Lew Wallace, ‘Ben-Hur’ and the Bicentennial of Indiana Statehood” at the Carriage House Interpretive Center of the Gen. Lew Wallace Study and Museum in Crawfordsville.

The lecture is free and will begin at 7 p.m.

The past year has seen an award-winning documentary about Wallace’s life by WTIU, a new theatrical movie, a revamped version of the novel by one of Wallace’s descendants, and several books about Wallace and “Ben-Hur.”

Miller will talk about the flurry of “Ben-Hur” material during the Indiana Bicentennial and what that looks like to an outsider and a scholar of the tradition. He also discuss recent books about “Ben-Hur,” including Jon Solomon’s recent book “Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster,” published in May, and last year’s “Bigger Than Ben-Hur: The Book, Its Adaptations, and Their Audiences,” which includes an essay by Miller.

He will also discuss at length the “Ben-Hur” feature film released this August.

“My final impression of the film is that, although it is not as bad as my first impression or as terrible as most critics said it was, it’s still a bit of a mess. And those of us who wished it well should not pretend otherwise,” Miller writes. “I think that the people who made it did not trust the general and his sturdy and oft-tested ‘tale of the Christ’ and instead made all sorts of changes in it.”

A native Texan, Miller taught at the University of Texas at Austin for 40 years, retiring in 2011. During his time at UT Austin, he was instrumental in founding the university’s Department of Religious Studies. He was the recipient of several awards for teaching excellence. He has been involved with the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum since 2000.

Thursday’s lecture is free and open to the public, but space is limited. It is requestered persons RSVP at 765-362-5769 or email study@ben-hur.com.