Byzantium – A Tale of Three Cities episode 3: Simon discovers surprises in Istanbul as it rose to become the imperial capital and Islam‘s most powerful city. Visiting the great mosques and palaces built by the Ottoman emperors, he tells the stories behind them – of royal concubines, murderous bodyguards and sultans both the powerful and the depraved. […]
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Byzantium – A Tale of Three Cities episode 2: In the second episode he explores modern Istanbul in search of the last desperate centuries of Christian Byzantium, in which the once glorious city was buffeted by enemies from both east and west and yet still produced a golden artistic renaissance. This is story of the Christian crusaders who destroyed the
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Byzantium – A Tale of Three Cities episode 1 : Simon Sebag Montefiore charts the rise of Istanbul from pagan trading post to capital of three empires and two religions, becoming not only holy but the most coveted city in the world. Simon Sebag Montefiore traces the sacred history of Istanbul. Known as the ‘city of the world’s
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How to Build a Cathedral: The great cathedrals were the wonders of the medieval world – the tallest buildings since the pyramids and the showpieces of medieval Christianity. Yet they were built at a time when most of us lived in hovels. Architectural historian Jon Cannon explores who the people were that built them and how they were
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A History of Christianity episode 6: 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. A History of Christianity episode 6 – God in the Dock In the final programme in the series, he asks where
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A History of Christianity episode 5: 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. A History of Christianity episode 5 – Protestantism – The Evangelical Explosion It is easily forgotten
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In the fourth part of the series, Diarmaid MacCulloch makes sense of the Reformation, and of how a faith based on obedience and authority gave birth to one based on individual conscience. The Amish today are peaceable folk, but five centuries ago their ancestors were seen as some of the most dangerous people in Europe. They were radicals
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A History of Christianity episode 3 – Orthodoxy: today, Eastern Orthodox Christianity flourishes in the Balkans and Russia, with over 150 million members worldwide. It is unlike Catholicism or Protestantism – worship is carefully choreographed, icons pull the faithful into a mystical union with Christ, and everywhere there is a symbol of a fierce-looking bird, the double-headed eagle. What story
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A History of Christianity episode 2 : Diarmaid MacCulloch explores the rise of Roman Catholicism. How did a small Jewish sect become western Europe’s established religion? Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch’s grandfather was a devout pillar of the local Anglican church and felt that any dabbling in Catholicism was liable to pollute the English way of life. But now his
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A History of Christianity episode 1: professor Diarmaid MacCulloch – reveals the origins of Christianity and explores what it means to be a Christian. A History of Christianity episode 1 – The First Christianity When Diarmaid MacCulloch was a small boy, his parents used to drive him round historic churches. Little did they know that they had
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Today one god is worshipped by two thirds of humanity. It is the culmination of an extraordinary story by which a single deity emerged from a pantheon of thousands in the crucible of religious ideas that was the ancient Middle East. In this episode we trace the birth, development and explosion of the religion of Abraham and Moses, from its very beginnings in Judaism to its triumph as Christianity within the Roman Empire. Also we look at the earliest form of monotheism, as devised by Akhenaten in ancient Egypt
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