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Protestantism The Evangelical Explosion

   2011    Culture
Diarmaid MacCulloch traces the growth of an exuberant expression of faith that has spread across the globe - Evangelical Protestantism. Today, it is associated with conservative politics, but the whole story is distinctly more unexpected. It is easily forgotten that the evangelical explosion has been driven by a concern for social justice and the claim that one could stand in a direct emotional relationship with God. It allowed the Protestant faith to burst its boundaries from its homeland in Europe. In America, its preachers marketed Christianity with all the flair and swashbuckling enterprise of American commerce. In Africa, it converted much of the continent by adapting to local traditions, and now it is expanding into Asia. But is Korean Pentecostalism and its message of prosperity in the here and now an adaptation too far?
Series: A History of Christianity

God in the Dock

   2011    Culture
Diarmaid MacCulloch's own life story makes him a symbol of a distinctive feature about Western Christianity - scepticism, a tendency to doubt which has transformed both Western culture and Christianity. In the final programme in the series, he asks where that change came from. He challenges the simplistic notion that faith in Christianity has steadily ebbed away before the relentless advance of science, reason and progress, and shows instead how the tide of faith perversely flows back in. Despite the attacks of Newton, Voltaire, the French Revolutionaries and Darwin, Christianity has shown a remarkable resilience. The greatest damage to Christianity was actually inflicted to its moral credibility by the two great wars of the 20th century and by its entanglement with Fascism and Nazism. And yet it is during crisis that the Church has rediscovered deep and enduring truths about itself, which may even be a clue to its future.
Series: A History of Christianity

To Death and Back

   2006    Art
Every day of our lives, we are bombarded by thousands of different images, images which affect us in countless different ways. But of all these there's one particular kind of image whose power is uniquely mesmerising, because while it terrifies us somehow it also comforts. But although it can manipulate us, it also reassures, It's the image of death.
Series: How Art Made the World

Star of Bethlehem

   2013    Science
A strange light in the heavens. The star that signals the birth of Jesus. Is it faith, fable, or fact? The star of Bethlehem is hard to identify thousands of years later. Can we decode the secret of the star with the science of the universe? What was it? Where did it come from? And will it return?
Discover an explanation by various astronomers and religion historians of what the star of Bethlehem really was based on available evidence.
Series: The Universe Season 7

Apocalyptic Visions

   2016    Science
The end is coming. But which cosmic catastrophe will deliver the death blow? Were the Vikings right to fear the frozen apocalypse of an endless winter? Did the Buddhists correctly predict a fiery end to life on Earth? Or will the thunderous Christian vision of Armageddon come crashing down from the stars? Which ancient prophesy do scientists believe accurately foretells our doom? And how close are we to the end of the world?
This film explores all the possibilities Apocalyptic Visions to the Future.
Series: The Universe Season 8

Wild Wild Country Part Two

   2018    Culture
Ma Anand Sheela and several other followers recount their experiences of moving to the ranch and the hostility from the residents of the city of Antelope. With the help of architects, engineers, city planners and commune residents, Rajneeshees construct a town called Rajneeshpuram. The commune decides to become self-governing which would allow them to issue their own building permits and have separate law enforcement.
Locals describe their mistrust towards Bhagwan. The American press begins to affiliate Rajneeshpuram with the Jonestown Massacre and paints Bhagwan as an antichrist. The group '1000 Friends of Oregon' initiates a court case to have the buildings of Rajneeshpuram destroyed. In response, Sheela begins buying up available properties in Antelope.
Series: Wild Wild Country
Wild Russia

Wild Russia

2009  Nature
Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

2013  History
First Life

First Life

2010  Science
The Last Dance

The Last Dance

2020  Culture
Wild Wild Country

Wild Wild Country

2018  Culture
Engineering the Future

Engineering the Future

2022  Technology
The Story of Us

The Story of Us

2018  Culture