A History of Christianity: BBC4 Series

hivizman

If anyone has access to BBC4, please note that on Thursday 5 November, at 9PM, the first episode of a new series A History of Christianity will be broadcast. This is presented by Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford, and is based on his recent book A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (Allen Lane, 2009), a huge volume that I recently purchased and then decided to save for Advent.

It will be interesting to compare this series with the one earlier in the year on Channel 4 Christianity: A History, which we discussed in a very interesting thread. Given that MacCulloch is a professional historian of the Christian Church, and that he is presenting the whole series, it should be more authoritative and consistent, though perhaps less quirky, than the other series.

In the first episode, MacCulloch is going to explore the Church in the East, so he should be covering such topics as Nestorianism, the role of Christian scholars in preserving Greek philosophy and science, and the engagement between Christianity and Islam.

Fanny Cradock

No access I'm afraid, but I'd be very much interested in hearing your thoughts.

PDN

No BBC4 here either

I wasa checking out the book you mentioned to see if it's available on Kindle yet, but alas, no.

Gadfly

Thanks for the heads-up.

Just in case posters don't know if you have Sky you can view BBC 4 through 'other channels'

PDN

Gadfly wrote: »

Thanks for the heads-up.

Just in case posters don't know if you have Sky you can view BBC 4 through 'other channels'

Thanks! Got it all set up. Now I just have to hope nobody dies or anything today so I don't have to go on pastoral visiting tonight. The 'other channels' don't let you record on Sky+.

Poor_old_gill

Anywhere you could watch this in the US of A?

lugha

PDN wrote: »

Thanks! Got it all set up. Now I just have to hope nobody dies or anything today so I don't have to go on pastoral visiting tonight. The 'other channels' don't let you record on Sky+.

It is being shown five times in total between now and Sunday, so baring a weekend massacre you should get to see it at some point.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrtr8

lmaopml

Very interesting program....not to mention seeing all the culture, sites and diversity ( He must have had a great time, I'd love to see those places for real..) I liked the politician who was part of the Islam faith who spoke to him too...

What stood out to me during the first episode amongst other things, like Christianity in China in the early days, was what MacCulloch says at the end of the program. "To restore it's ability to listen...."....Fabulous! and, to an extent, I believe this is happening...slowly, but surely.

I think the media while it has it's lefties, righties and centralist on the fencists - it does play a part in keeping a 'check' and highlighting many many things...

Cool program so far! Can't wait to see the next one now..

JimiTime

I was off playing football tonight, is it worth tuning in for the repeat?

lmaopml

I think it is to be honest. It's giving a somewhat 'brief' and quick history with notable mentions etc. that don't go into lots and lots of detail.... but the visuals are brilliant to go along side the re-cap. Worth watching...:)

PDN

It was very good. I liked the way it explained the spread of the eastern Church, particularly Nestorianism. Good locations and well presented.

hivizman

I'm glad people enjoyed the programme. I particularly welcomed the discussion of the debate between Nestorius and Cyril (at the Council of Chalcedon) over the two natures of Jesus Christ, complete with visual demonstrations. Nestorius, arguing for two separate natures in one person, was illustrated by adding oil to water within a single container (the oil floats on top of the water), while Cyril, arguing for a combination of both natures in one person, was illustrated by adding wine to water (the wine and water mix). The focus on Christianity in the Middle East and the movement of the Nestorian "Church of the East" to Baghdad and beyond, even into China, was also useful. Nice phrases included describing the Christians of Baghdad under the Abbasid Caliphate as the "Think tank of the Middle East", and the 8th to 13th century Chinese Christianity as a "Christianity of Dialogue rather than a Christianity of Conquest".

The travelogue elements were pleasant to look at, with MacCulloch visiting Jerusalem, Turkey (particularly Istanbul), Syria and China. He did, however, suffer from the bane of continuity by having to wear the same shirt and jacket all the time (I wonder whether the BBC got a bulk discount on the clothes, because the expert on early Chinese Christianity, Martin Palmer, seemed to be wearing the same style of shirt and jacket). A few times the choice of images was a bit trite, for example, discussing the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, MacCulloch's comment "the Temple went up in flames" was seen over a shot of the Western Wall of the Temple, followed by a shot of generic flames.

Next week, the programme will focus on the pre-Reformation Roman church.

Fanny Cradock

It's most unfortunate that the BBC iplayer is available in the UK only. Doesn't the Commonwealth count for anything any more?

The programme sound fascinating. I'll expect some more details next week, especially a fashion update from Hivisman.

PDN

hivizman wrote: »

He did, however, suffer from the bane of continuity by having to wear the same shirt and jacket all the time

Ha ha! Well spotted. But it was so cold in Istanbul that he had to wear an overcoat.

I shoot some video stuff myself, and continuity can be a real pain. Last week my wife was nagging at me to get my hair cut and I was trying to explain to her that I had to film two segments of video first so as not to break continuity.

Back on topic, I also liked the use of oil, water and wine to illustrate the Nestorian controversy.

hivizman

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

It's most unfortunate that the BBC iplayer is available in the UK only. Doesn't the Commonwealth count for anything any more?

The series will be available as a Region 2 DVD from 1 February 2010, but I don't know whether it will be shown on TV outside the UK. I checked at the end to see whether the series was a co-production, which often means it will be on public television in other English-speaking countries. It seems, though, to be a co-production with the Open University rather than with anyone like HBO.

PDN wrote: »

But it was so cold in Istanbul that he had to wear an overcoat.

I was in Istanbul earlier this year, and friends told me that it sometimes snows in the winter, which I didn't believe until they showed me some photographs.

I've been dipping into MacCulloch's new book A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. It's written in a clear style, scholarly but not dense. I got rather bogged down with his earlier book Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700 - it reminded me a bit of Rossini on Wagner: "Great moments but dull quarter hours." So I hope that the new book keeps the momentum up over its 1016 pages.

hivizman

The second episode of Diarmaid MacCulloch's A History of Christianity was broadcast this evening on BBC4. This episode covered the Roman Catholic Church up to 1500, so 15 centuries in 60 minutes obviously meant that the programme was very superficial. MacCulloch began with an interesting discussion of whether the Roman Church had over-emphasised Peter at the expense of Paul - this may be so in institutional terms, but he didn't engage with the crucial importance of Paul as the source of much Christian doctrine. MacCulloch pointed out how, from about the end of the 2nd century, Popes such as Damasus were attempting to make Christianity attractive to the Roman aristocracy, and this inevitably moved the focus away from preaching to the poor and defenceless in society.

The programme then bounced along from obvious milestone to obvious milestone: Augustine - Gregory the Great - the development of confession - Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire - the move to celibacy among the Catholic priesthood - the doctrine of purgatory - the Crusades - indulgences - Saint Francis - Catharism - the Inquisition. MacCulloch concluded that, by the 15th century, the Roman church seemed to be securely established, hardly imagining that the 16th century would bring Reformation and Counter-Reformation.

As last week, there were a few nice remarks, for example, the purchase and sale of indulgences was suggested to be as "routine as a modern lottery ticket purchased in a good cause". MacCulloch was particularly negative about the Crusades, describing them as "one of the darkest chapters in the history of Catholicism", and commenting on the paradox of "atrocities committed in the name of the God of Love".

I think, though, that he is simply trying to cram too much in to each programme, and I wished that he had picked out no more than four characteristic topics and concentrated on them, rather than feeling the need to "namecheck" so many significant personages.

Fashion note: although MacCulloch stuck to the same basic clothes as last week, with a cream (or beige) jacket, blue cotton shirt and dark trousers, a panama hat and a dark overcoat (he looks like an anglican bishop on holiday), the costume budget this week also ran to a rather elegant white silk scarf, and in a couple of shots he was wearing a Russian hat.

Next week, he turns to the Greek Orthodox Church, which at least for me will be a less familiar story.

lmaopml

I missed it hivisman, do you know if it's repeated?

You felt the same way as I did about the first program. Interesting, but quick - and coloured by a particular worldview! lol...

Still though, I'm raging I missed it, would have liked to see that one in particular.

hivizman

lmaopml wrote: »

I missed it hivizman, do you know if it's repeated?

It's repeated on BBC4 on Sunday at 7PM.

lmaopml wrote: »

You felt the same way as I did about the first program. Interesting, but quick - and coloured by a particular worldview! lol...

Still though, I'm raging I missed it, would have liked to see that one in particular.

I don't mind the worldview side - that's what made the Channel 4 series on Christianity earlier this year particularly appealing, because it explicitly encouraged the presenters to give their personal views.

darjeeling

Diarmaid MacCulloch - he's so hot right now!

Heard him on Radio 4's Start the Week a couple of weeks back where he talked a little about the early inroads of Christianity in the far East and then about what he saw as the current would-be Papal land-grab for conservative Anglicans. [Edit: link]

Last week he popped up again on Radio 4's In Our Time , talking about the Siege of Munster (listen here), when radical anabaptists took over the North German city before being besieged and defeated by a coalition of the ousted Catholic prince-bishop and various Protestant groups.

Denerick

its a very good programme and the presenter/historian is notoriously level headed and fair. I missed it last night, anyone know when the second installment will be on repeat on BBC4??

Fanny Cradock

Denerick wrote: »

anyone know when the second installment will be on repeat on BBC4??

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=62990563&postcount=18

hivizman

Last week, I was critical of the programme on the Catholic Church for flitting from one topic to another. This week's programme, "Eastern Orthodoxy: From Empire to Empire", seemed more coherent because Diarmaid MacCulloch focused on a smaller number of themes, while still managing to discuss the main episodes in a history covering 17 centuries.

The programme began in Ayasofia (Hagia Sophia) in Istanbul, presented as a towering achievement of the Byzantine Empire (as MacCulloch quotes the Emperor Justinian, responsible for building this great church, "Solomon, I have surpassed thee"). The production company was able to arrange for MacCulloch to gain private access to the church, so the "travelogue" element of the programme showed this wonderful building off perfectly, and I was pleased to see that the camera team did not hide the fact that Ayasofia is currently filled with scaffolding as the ceiling of the central dome is restored.

The next theme was the place of icons in the Orthodox church, "not just art, but a three-way meeting of artist, worshipper, and God". This richly illustrated segment discussed how icons, being flat surfaces, were not thought to breach the second commandment's prohibition on making "graven images". However, the rise of Islam put the Byzantine empire on the defensive, and Islam's detestation of attempts to portray the divine and the prophets was copied by the iconoclasts.

MacCulloch then considered the influence of Orthodox missionaries to the Slavs, particularly Saints Cyril and Methodius, creating a form of writing for the Slavonic languages, which led to the Cyrillic alphabet. This was illustrated with pictures of a Catholic religious ceremony in Moravia, where I was amused to spot a priest in full vestments suddenly pull out a camera to snap the cardinal celebrating the mass.

MacCulloch turned to the schism with Rome, mentioning the dispute over the "filioque" clause in the Creed, though misleadingly suggesting that this emerged in the Western church in the ninth century (I think that the notion that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son goes back to Augustine if not earlier). He describes the "Rape of Constantinople" in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade as "one of the most shameful episodes in Christian history" (this is in line with his comments last week, and he clearly doesn't like the Crusades!). Then it's fast-forward to the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans.

The rest of the programme looked at the emergence of Orthodox Christianity in Russia, discussing how wandering "holy men" helped to root the faith among the ordinary populace. The tensions between the Tsars and the Patriarchate were examined, with the claims that Moscow was the "third Rome" (after Rome itself and Constantinople), and that the Tsars were the successors to the Byzantine emperors, with Ivan the Terrible attempting to define "Holy Russia", balanced against persecution and sectarianism within the Russian Orthodox church. The virtual destruction of the Orthodox church under Stalin (illustrated by pictures of literal destruction of church buildings) is by implication likened to previous episodes in the history of Eastern Orthodoxy, and MacCulloch describes one Soviet commissar who ordered icons to be lined up, sentenced them to death and then had them shot. The programme finished with a question: can Russian Orthodoxy survive engagement with the capitalist West and with postmodernity?

This week's fashion note is a comment on MacCulloch's Russian hat - it was obviously cold in Moscow, with snow heavy on the ground (particularly in the melancholy park filled with statues of the heroes of communism, which MacCulloch visited to make some point or other that was for me swamped by the visuals). He had bought one of those ex-Red Army (or more likely a reproduction) hats with the Red Army badge, and wore this in Red Square with St Basil's Cathedral in the background. I'm not sure, though, that this was the same Russian hat he was wearing last week when he visited Ravenna. Will he be wearing either hat next week, when he deals with the Reformation, or will it be back to the panama?

Incidentally, I note that this is my 500th post on boards.ie, and I've earned my third star.

LordSutch

To anybody who thinks thay don't have access "Yes you do" > that's presuming you have even the most basic Chorus/NTL package! > thats also presuming you have a Hi Fi/Midi system with a 'Coaxial' socket on the back (same as a TV Aerial socket), then you just plug-in your FM cable from the (TV/FM socket) & Bob's your uncle you now have BBC Radio 4 + all the other BBC radio stations too . . .

Its amazing just how many people have never plugged-in their radios to the FM socket on the wall.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

LordSutch

God bless you, I thought it was BBC4 Radio > silly me

hivizman

A bit late with this week's update - unfortunately, I had to work late on Thursday evening so I've just caught up on BBC iPlayer.

The theme of the episode was the Reformation. This was another episode that focused on specific themes rather than trying to squeeze too much in. We had a long sequence in Wittenberg, centred on Luther, then another sequence in Zurich based around Zwingli, and finally a visit to Geneva to talk about Calvin. The Luther section was filmed mainly last October on "Reformation Day", which celebrates the anniversary of Luther's nailing of his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. MacCulloch explained that Luther was challenging the Catholic Church's doctrine of purgatory and the sale of indulgences - following Augustine, Luther argued that we are justified by faith, so the concept that our time in purgatory could be shortened by the works of ourselves or others was incoherent, indeed the whole idea of purgatory was not scriptural. As the congregation in Wittenberg Cathedral sang Luther's hymn "Ein Feste Burg", MacCulloch summed up Luther's position: "We stand alone with our consciences: we can do no other."

Then to Zurich, and a discussion of Reformed Protestantism and Zwingli. Here, MacCulloch discussed the influence of Church on State, how regarding the Bible as the sole source of authority and rejecting the voice of the Pope led to a position that saw religious authority being applied in the secular as well as in the sacred sphere. MacCulloch explained how the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation in the Mass was replaced by a view of holy communion as a remembrance of Christ.

On to Geneva, and a discussion of how printing helped to spread the ideas of Calvin and other reformers around Europe. MacCulloch discussed how Protestantism emphasised preaching over ritual, and he slipped into a soft Scottish accent as he discussed how John Knox brought Calvinism from Geneva to Scotland.

The tone of the programme lightened as MacCulloch discussed Anglicanism against a background of the choristers of Winchester Cathedral singing the music of William Byrd. MacCulloch argued that Anglicanism reflects a tension between Catholicism and Protestantism, and used Byrd (a Catholic writing music for the Protestant Queen Elizabeth) as a symbol for the compromises on which Anglicanism was founded. He mentioned the challenge to mainstream Anglicanism from the Puritans, and how the English Civil War led to another attempt to combine Church and State in the Cromwellian Commonwealth. "Reformation is a story of splits and persecutions", and MacCulloch notes how prone Protestant Christianity was to sectarian division.

Having discussed the Reformation, it was time to turn to the Counter-Reformation, but MacCulloch saw the roots of this not so much in the challenge of Protestantism but rather in late medieval Spain and the "reconquista" - the recovery of Al-Andalus from Islam. He suggested that this bred a type of "militant, self-confident Catholicism" exemplified by the Jesuits. He went to Mexico to discuss how Spanish missionaries carried this militant Catholicism to the Americas, gaining new Catholic souls to make up for those lost to Protestantism in Europe. A brief visit to Prague to discuss the Thirty Years War allowed MacCulloch to finish with a comment on how religious persecutions in one part of the world could lead to transmission of particular views of Christianity to other parts of the world.

This week, costume continuity seems to have been allowed to slip. I counted three different shirts, all in shades of blue, but one of them with a button-down collar, and one short-sleeved, and two pairs of trousers (one very dark grey and the other a lighter shade of grey). We also saw MacCulloch wearing a pair of black elastic-sided boots. He made a good stab of playing the organ in Wittenberg, though he wasn't let loose on the organ in Winchester.

Next week, more on Protestantism and also a discussion of the role of missionaries.

hivizman

In this week's episode, "Protestantism: The Evangelical Explosion", Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch picks up his story at the beginning of the 18th century. Protestantism seems to have been confined to Northern Europe by the resurgent Roman Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation. But in quiet ways, new approaches to Christianity were beginning to emerge. The Moravians are identified as a central catalyst. They saw, in MacCulloch's words, "eternal salvation coming through a personal experience of Jesus Christ", an emotional as much as an intellectual relationship with God, "less of the head, more of the heart". And they wanted to share this with others through missionary efforts, bringing the good news of Jesus Christ, the evangelon, to the New World as well as to the Old World.

The Moravians influenced John Wesley, who had, while an undergraduate at Oxford, rejected the rather worldly form of Anglicanism of his day, finding greater spiritual help in a methodical approach to prayer and ritual. Wesley described a "heart strangely warmed" through a particularly intense spiritual experience, when he reflected on the view of Augustine and Luther that we are saved by faith alone. He took on a mission to the increasingly urbanised working class emerging as a consequence of the industrial revolution, and his preaching-focused version of Christianity attracted many who found that Anglicanism no longer provided guidance or comfort.

However, as MacCulloch observes, it was in the New World that Evangelical Protestantism gained most influence. Partly through the American Revolution and the separation of church and state, when "Christianity was cut free" from the problems of establishment, and partly through the appeal of revivalist movements to marginal groups, not least slaves, a huge number of denominations emerged to meet the specific needs of particular groups.

Moving from North America to Africa, MacCulloch discusses how Protestant missionaries tended to work within local structures rather than attempt the central control of the Roman Catholic church. European missionaries influenced Africans, who took up the missionary role and spread Christianity rapidly, so that within the 20th century as many as 50% of Africans would consider themselves Christian. However, their beliefs and rituals are heavily influenced by indigenous beliefs, so they have moved a long way from the traditional forms of worship of Northern Europe.

Finally, MacCulloch travels to South Korea, discussing the influence of Pentecostalism, with the influence of the Holy Spirit ("the poor relation of the Trinity") manifesting itself in a "prosperity gospel" that argues that Christianity is not just about what happens beyond death but is a religion of the here and now. He notes that many Korean Christians see religion as a way to material improvement, but asks whether this is taking the religion in directions that would not be recognised by Jesus himself.

Next week, the last episode will contrast the continued growth of Christianity in America, Africa and Asia ("the centre of gravity of Christianity has shifted from Europe to Africa") with a European indifference to religion, asking the question "Should God be worried?"

Again, this episode was constructed around a small number of themes rather than trying to be a general narrative, and was better for that purpose. Unlike most of the other episodes, MacCulloch used interviews, usually with local ministers and scholars, to bring out key points. There were two or three shots of MacCulloch sitting embarrassedly in the middle of church services where most of the congregation was standing, singing, clapping, or even speaking in tongues - it would have been good to see him taking more of a part, but perhaps he was trying to give the appearance of an impartial guide rather than an active member of the Christian church. I didn't spot any new clothes this week, though all three of his shirts got an outing at some time or another.

hivizman

This episode was entitled "God in the Dock", following a collection of essays by C. S. Lewis. Diarmaid MacCulloch began by pointing out that he was descended from a long line of Anglican clerics, but that he grew up at a time when "The sea of faith was ebbing away against the relentless tide of progress". He now describes himself as a "candid friend of Christianity", suggesting that he does not consider himself to be a Christian - so why was he taking communion, crossing himself, praying etc in earlier episodes?

The central theme of the episode was the creation of doubt, which MacCulloch characterises as "chipping away at the very fabric of Christianity". This doubt is personified by reference to Spinoza, Newton and particularly Voltaire, questioning the possibility of a loving and just God when faced with the evidence of disasters such as the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Voltaire is seen as a major influence on the French Revolution, when the Catholic Church was basically closed down (at least temporarily) in France.

However, MacCulloch sees a more insidious threat coming from the "scientific study of religion" emerging in Germany in the early 19th century, when biblical criticism takes off, and the Bible is treated as just another book. People srart asking where the authority of the Bible comes from. MacCulloch discusses the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church to what it described as "Modernism", and he identifies World War I and the rise of socialism as undermining, in different ways, the authority of Christianity and its churches. He discusses the various rapprochements of the Catholic Church (and indeed in Germany many Protestant Churches) with fascism as largely a reaction to the "abolition of religion" under communism. Again, using the motif of reaction, he suggests that the decline in Christianity in the Western World in the Post World War II period is part of a general suspicion of all systems that make absolute claims to truth.

After a brief detour down the path of gender, sex and sexual orientation issues, MacCulloch looks to the future. His general assertion is that Christianity is, in comparison to the development of humanity, a "young religion that has not revealed all its truths yet". He points out the vibrancy of Christianity outside its more traditional home in Europe, and concludes, quoting Aquinas, by suggesting that "God is not the answer but the question", a question that will keep us busy for many years to come.

Now that the series is over, my general impression is that MacCulloch tried to cram too much into six hours, but at the same time the nature of television prevented him from being sufficiently nuanced. As an extended trailer for his book, the series was effective, but I preferred the Channel 4 series on Christianity broadcast earlier this year, particularly for its idiosyncratic presenters. MacCulloch's smug "Oxford Professor" manner lost its charm quite quickly. However, the series contained some highlights, and the first episode in particular, discussing the little-known "Church of the East", stood out for me.

If you were not able to watch the series as broadcast, the DVD is released early in 2010.

wolfsbane

hivizman said:

Now that the series is over, my general impression is that MacCulloch tried to cram too much into six hours, but at the same time the nature of television prevented him from being sufficiently nuanced. As an extended trailer for his book, the series was effective, but I preferred the Channel 4 series on Christianity broadcast earlier this year, particularly for its idiosyncratic presenters. MacCulloch's smug "Oxford Professor" manner lost its charm quite quickly. However, the series contained some highlights, and the first episode in particular, discussing the little-known "Church of the East", stood out for me.

We are indebted to you for these very helpful reviews.

I found the series gave much interesting background, but - perhaps mainly to lack of time - its analysis/description of important beliefs/decisions misled by generalisation.

For example, the idea that the Moravian's concept of personal engagement with God as something new to Christianity. This Evangelical concept was not invented by the Evangelical Revival, nor by the Moravian Movement. It was certainly a key feature of Reformation theology and practice, and of the Puritans afterwards.

It was new to Wesley in his unconverted Anglican state because great swathes of the professing church had lost the faith of their Puritan fathers. The Moravians merely brought these gospel truths again to Wesley.