Written and presented by leading British writer Howard Jacobson, this program examines the story of the origins, and consequences, of Christian belief. The bare facts are that although Christianity originated in devout Judaism, for Jews, it has by and large been a calamity. The roots of anti-semitism that enabled the Holocaust lie in 2000 years of Christian vilification of the Jews based on the false accounts of Jesus's death written in the Christian...

"A major reinterpretation of the religious superstate that came to define both Europe and Christianity itself, by one of our foremost medieval historians. In the 4th century AD, a new faith grew out of Palestine, overwhelming the paganism of Rome, and resoundingly defeating a host of other rival belief systems. Almost a thousand years later, all of Europe was controlled by Christian rulers, and the religion, ingrained within culture and society, exercised...

Lyons carefully observes the end of Christian America's dominance and offers a compelling vision for how followers of Jesus can recover their core identity while faithfully navigating our current cultural milieu.

The evangelical movement began in the revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, known in America as the Great Awakenings. A populist rebellion against the established churches, it became the dominant religious force in the country. During the nineteenth century white evangelicals split apart dramatically, first North versus South, and then at the end of the century, modernist versus fundamentalist. After World War II, Billy Graham, the...

This program discusses papal reactions to church dissidents. Thirteenth-century fragmentation of religious orders into various sects is examined. Discussions include St. Francis of Assisi; the French Albigenses sect and the Albigensean Crusade; the fall of Albi; the Cathars and their extermination by the Inquisition; Pope Innocent III; the founding of the Dominican order; and the Ecumenical Council of 1215.