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Christianity: A History A series of personal perspectives
g
Foreword 6 BC
Quirinius becomes
Aaqil Ahmed, Governor of Syria
and conducts census
Commissioning Editor Religion & Multicultural, Channel 4 c8–4 BC
Birth of Jesus
Christianity: A History is the biggest project I have commissioned during my time at
Channel 4. It’s almost unheard of for a mainstream broadcaster to dedicate eight hours of c28 AD
John the Baptist
prime time television to Christianity in this way. I think it’s fair to say that it’s a big risk, but a
begins his ministry;
risk we really wanted to take. he baptises Jesus
c29
and is later arrested
Jesus begins ministry,
Why? Because, of the sheer scale of the project and the complexity of the story at its very and beheaded
preaching: ‘Repent, for
heart. As with all religions, the history of Christianity is not a simple one. It contains dark the kingdom of heaven c32
moments, compromises and great achievements, and features life changing heroes and
Episode 1:
is near’ Execution of
villains. We feel that now is the right time for Channel 4 to present these stories in a way that John the Baptist
will inform our audience about how this faith has shaped our world, and more specifically, our c30–36
Jesus
nation. Crucifixion of Jesus
Two examples of Christianity’s impact on our modern world are the Reformation and the c37
Crusades. Without the Reformation we may not have become a Protestant nation with many Conversion of Paul
The Jew
of the characteristics, language and structures we take for granted today. And the Crusades? One
of our presenters, Rageh Omar, argues in his film that we’ve forgotten its importance in the c46–57
west, but that in the Muslim world, the brutality of the Crusades still resonates in the hearts Paul’s three
of many Muslims and in the rhetoric of Al Qaeda. missionary
journeys c55
So, Christianity: A History is not just another television series – for me it’s more important Paul writes his letter
Writer Howard Jacobson talks
than that, it’s a lesson about today’s world and an attempt to shed light on the history of a to the Romans
of Jesus’s Jewish background, the
faith that continues to shape the destiny of all of us in some way or other. We hope it does c64
continuing rift between Christianity Nero blames
that and that it makes just a few of us think about how we got to where we are today.
and Judaism, and why, despite not Christians for the
believing in God, he thinks knowing religious Great Fire of Rome
66 –73
Martyrdom of Paul
history can release us from Great Jewish Revolt
the burden of history.
Contents 70
Jerusalem falls
Episode 1 Jesus the Jew 1 Episode 5 Reformation 17 and the Temple
Howard Jacobson Ann Widdecombe is destroyed
132–135
Final Jewish revolt,
Episode 2 Rome 5 Episode 6 Dark Continents 21 Judea and Jerusalem
Michael Portillo Kwame Kwei-Armah erased from maps,
269
Episode 3 Dark Ages 9 Anthony becomes and region renamed
Episode 7 God and the Scientists 25
a hermit – his life Syria Palæstina
Robert Beckford Colin Blakemore
and actions lie
303
Episode 4 Crusades 13 Episode 8 The Future of Christianity 29 at foundation of
Diocletian orders
Rageh Omaar Cherie Blair monastic movement
burning of Christian
books and churches
2 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 1
he Judaism in In 1965, the Second Vatican council
which I grew up was removed the imputation of Jewish guilt and
not so much liberal dropped a prayer for Jews to be redeemed
or orthodox as through Christ. The Church, it seemed, at last
befuddled. We were accepted its responsibility for the libelling of
proud of being Jewish Jews. To Jewish consternation around the
without knowing world, Pope Benedict XVI has recently
exactly what it was. restored this prayer. So with every advance
No bacon in the house, no Christmas tree, in scholarship and tolerance there is a
but we didn’t keep the Sabbath and rarely theological setback.
visited the Synagogue. Yet we feared the
cross as any vampire might. Because we’d The point of the programme Jesus the Jew
been made outcasts in Christ’s name, we is that knowledge is everything. Insofar as
were alarmed by every aspect of Christianity, you can know what happened, don’t tell lies
no matter that what the first Christians said, about it, don’t distort it, don’t trust things,
they said as Jews, to Jews. read for yourself. When I discussed this with
a Cardinal in the film, in particular the verses
No one denies that Jesus was a Jew, but in the Gospel of St John that describe the
even the most charitable Christians believe Jews as children of the devil, he said the
he was on an errand to turn Judaism into Gospel of John was actually a Gospel of love
something else. But the truth is he wasn’t and people should ‘relativise’ the meaning
starting a new religion. He was a devout of these verses, but ultimately there was
Jewish teacher committed to reawakening nothing we could do about the language
Jews to their Jewishness. because the Gospel was the word of God.
His Jewishness was systematically
dismantled by the early Christians for whom “The only way you lighten
it became essential, if they were to sell their
new faith to the Roman world, that its Jewish
the burden of history is
origins be obscured. And the first stage in to know it.”
that re-telling of the truth was to turn the
Jews into Christ killers.
But I believe that the Gospels are not the
Every historian knows that the Romans word of God, and not even reliably the word
were largely responsible for the death of of Jesus. They were written many years after
Jesus because they feared he would incite Jesus’s death by people who had probably
rebellion. Why would Jews have wanted him never met him. There is all the difference in
dead? Why would they have put a crown of the world between what the historical Jesus
thorns on his head and ironically titled him might have said and what later Christian
‘King of the Jews’? But in order to rescue propagandists wanted him to have said.
Jesus from his Jewishness, the story had to Even believers must read critically.
go that Jews had killed him. The disowning
was theirs. And in the popular imagination Though of course I knew when I started
that fiction persists. to make this documentary that Jesus was
2 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 3
306
Constantine
proclaimed
312 Empearor
wasn’t baptising him out of Jewishness into Emperor Constantine’s
“The idea of people being another religion, but the very opposite. He vision before decisive
Battle of Milvian Bridge 311–325
immersed in water and was reaffirming his Jewishness. This partly
Eusebius, Bishop
explains the playing down of John the
then emerging in another Baptist as one Gospel succeeds another. 313
of Caesarea, writes
Ecclesiastical History
faith always seemed to ‘Edict of Milan’
establishes official
me so alien.” Conversely, I did not take the measure,
before I made this film, of the good
toleration of 321
Christianity by Rome Constantine decrees
feeling there is out there among Christians
Sunday as day of rest
Jewish, what I didn’t appreciate was just towards Jews, the new Vatican ruling
325
how Jewish he was, how many of Christianity’s notwithstanding. Historians now tell a
Constantine calls
key concepts are Jewish in origin. How many different story to the old accepted one, and First Council of Nicaea
people, for example, know that when they there is an acceptance that what happened to unify Christianity
sing along to Handel’s Messiah they are to the Jews in Germany could not have and grants special c326
Episode 2:
recognition Consecration of
singing words drawn largely from the Old happened had the emotional ground not Basilica of St Peter
to Jerusalem
Testament? Or that the promise of a been laid, had the vocabulary of hatred not built by Constantine
‘Messiah’ is Jewish, born out of Jewish been established over thousands of years, the Great over the
330
Rome
longing and distress, and that it means in Christian art and Christian liturgy, insisting tomb of the Apostle
Constantinople
‘the anointed one’, not ‘Son of God’? that the Jews were a murderous and therefore inaugurated as the
expendable people, and that it was almost New Rome
331
According to Jewish prophetic books the a Christian duty to get rid of them. Constantine
Messiah would come to liberate the Jewish commissions
Eusebius to deliver
people from occupation and prepare them When I went to Israel to shoot part of this Former MP Michael Portillo turns 335 50 Bibles for the
for God’s kingdom on earth. When Jesus film, I found Jerusalem simultaneously his politician’s mind to the stunning Consecration of Churches of
failed to fulfil that promise – for the world exhilarating and depressing because the success of Roman Emperor Constantine, Jerusalem Church of Constantinople
was not redeemed, God’s kingdom had not old conflicts have not been resolved. Every the Holy Sepulchre
a man he describes as a master of the
been realised and the Romans remained in place is contested; every stone is the site 337
political arts who, out of a desire to Death of Constantine
occupation – he could not be the Messiah. of something sacred to somebody else. 380
For him to become the Christian Messiah You look at it and think: this is a knot that stabilise his empire, resolved the
Emperor Theodosius
St Paul had to invent new meanings for the will never be untied; this is insoluble. fundamental debate about whether makes Christianity
Messianic promise. By a theological sleight Jesus was human or divine. official religion of
Roman Empire 390–405
of hand the Messiah became a God, not a But we hope against hope for someone Jerome’s Vulgate
man, and the salvation he promised would to solve it for us. Half the world, it seems, – translation of the
not be of this world, but of another. believes that – maybe, just maybe – Obama Greek Bible into Latin
395
will be the man to do it. If you want to know Death of
Much Christian vocabulary has always what Messianic expectation must have been Emperor Theodosius
396–430
frightened me by association. Baptism – the like in Jesus’s day you only have to look at Augustine, Bishop
idea of people being immersed in water and what we are demanding from Obama. Kafka of Hippo, formalises
then emerging in another faith – seemed to said Messiahs always come too late. I think Christian theology
me quite alien. But baptism was a Jewish they never come at all: it is the waiting that including the ideas
430 of ‘original sin’ and
rite. As witness the mikveh, the ritual baths is everything. Death of Augustine ‘just war’. His concept
which religious Jewish women still visit. So of the Church as a
when John the Baptist baptised Jesus, he Howard Jacobson ‘spiritual city of God’
enables Christianity
476 to flourish after
Traditional date for the collapse of
Fall of Rome the Roman Empire
4 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 5
showered with riches and endowed
with new churches. Eventually Constantine
established the Church in the West and the
East – what has since become the Greek
Orthodox Church – a huge achievement. I like
to think about this as a political issue. Why
did Constantine convert? Was this idealism?
Was this a sincere conversion? Was it
politics? I think it has elements of all these.
His mother was a Christian and a very
significant figure – she travelled around
and established the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which is still an
extremely important site of worship and
pilgrimage. Constantine said that he had
a vision; he painted the sign of the Cross on
the shields of his soldiers and, though heavily
outnumbered, he won a decisive battle at
“Christians went
from being ferociously
persecuted to being on
the inside track, showered
with riches and endowed
with new churches.”
s a former politician 18. I’m now beyond being a lapsed Catholic, Constantine saw that this dispute had the Milvian Bridge and seized Rome.
and a former I think I’m an atheist. Every Sunday, when potential to tear his empire apart. So he The Christians, who were about a tenth
Christian, I wanted I recited the Nicene Creed – ‘I believe in one not only converted to Christianity, but of the population of the Empire, resisted
to find out why God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven effectively established himself as the head persecution. They had bishops and priests,
Constantine, that and earth…’ – bits of it seemed very strange, of the Church and summoned the Council an organisation, an infrastructure – a
master of the like the description of Jesus Christ as being at Nicaea to resolve this issue. And its key command structure – and it was probably
political arts and ‘of one substance with the Father’. resolutions have lasted for 1,700 years. I useful for Constantine to get hold of that. But
leader of a pagan now realise it was defining orthodoxy, which he was a pragmatic man, and didn’t try to
realm, chose to This comes from the first Council of Nicaea, meant that it also defined heresy, and over drive pagans out. He cohabited with pagans,
give his thumbs p to Christianity. And what a special conference called by the Roman the centuries the Church has put its heretics particularly in the eastern side of the Empire,
were the consequences of his conversion for Emperor Constantine in 325AD to resolve to the rack, the sword and the fire. When in Constantinople, the city which he
the Roman Empire and for the Christian faith. major theological differences within the Constantine converted, he established modestly named after himself. I like his
Church between those who thought Christ empire-wide toleration (the next emperor, ambiguity; it is wonderfully political that
My father, being Spanish, was a Catholic; was a human being, and therefore couldn’t Theodosius I, would make Christianity the he didn’t really want to resolve the issue.
my mother was Church of England but be the same as God, and those who said, no, official religion of the Roman Empire) so
religious. I was brought up a Catholic and even though he came down to earth he was Christians went from being ferociously The thing that’s uncompromising about
went to Mass every week until I was about still part of God. persecuted to being on the inside track, Christianity – in common with Judaism and
6 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 7
c560–616
Life of King Aethelbert
of Kent, who converts
563 to Christianity
Islam – is that there is only one God. All the because they didn’t have the same St Columba founds
monastery on Iona
other religions make it acceptable for you to technologies as we have, because not as
in Scotland 570–632
believe in different people and things. Didn’t many books had been written in those Life of Prophet
Constantine understand that bit, that there is days as we have now. But the theological Muhammed
only one God? Well probably he did but he debate about the nature of Christ is such 597
Pope Gregory sends
had political nous and didn’t want to force a sophisticated argument, and the scholars
Augustine to Britain to
the issue. of the day showed a wonderful depth of convert Anglo-Saxons 604
thinking and understanding. St Paul’s Cathedral
Anybody in politics, from a local councillor established in London
to Prime Minister, knows how you deal with There are parallels with the modern world, 607
Pope Boniface III
difficult people, how you take people with such as how politicians deal with what they
first Bishop of Rome
you and don’t offend certain groups. So regard as extremism. In a political system 630s
to be called ‘Pope’
almost every politician is like Constantine; where emperors become gods after their King of Northumbria
establishes
on the other hand almost nobody’s like death and you consult the gods before you
Episode 3:
monastery
Constantine because he was unbelievably take any action, it is potentially dangerous 664
at Lindisfarne
successful. The way he handled the Christians when a group comes along and says, no, Synod of Whitby
unites Celtic
and balanced them with the pagans reflects there is only one God and this is an idea
Dark Ages
Christianity with c672
a subtle political mind. He wasn’t going to we are prepared to die for. Roman Church Birth of the
make extra difficulty for himself by having
Venerable Bede,
unnecessary religious friction. So from time to time the Christians are author of
persecuted, they’re fed to lions and chopped 684 Ecclesiastical
up by gladiators. But the people think there St Cuthbert elected History of the
“People who believe that must be a lot to this religion if these people Challenging Christian theologian Bishop of Lindisfarne English People
their only responsibility is are willing to die for it. Robert Beckford shines a spotlight
c700
to a life after death are People who believe that their only
on the Dark Ages and discovers King Lindisfarne Gospels
Aethelbert whose conversion to Christianity first created and
very difficult to control.” responsibility is to a life after death are
brought literacy, law and a connection with
711–718 decorated by
very difficult to control. That’s what the Islamic conquest Abbot Eadfrith
Europe. To his surprise, he also uncovers of Iberia
Romans thought about the Christians, and
a dynamic multicultural tradition which 718–1492
I don’t want to paint an over-idealistic it’s what we think about extremists today.
picture of Constantine. He was a ruthless, prompts him to rethink the meaning of Reconquista,
English identity. Christendom
expansionist emperor who killed a lot of I think politicians love moderate religion and 793 retakes Iberia
people. This was not a cuddly fellow. You are terrified by extremist religion. Constantine Viking raiders sack
might compare him with a Napoleon or a probably did see that God-fearing people monastery of Lindisfarne 800
Charlemagne – one of these huge characters were likely to be more orderly and that Pope crowns
from history who are used to the military putting himself in control of that Church Charlemagne first
way of life and see it as their dynastic duty structure would give him a position of power. 878 Holy Roman Emperor
as well as their personal ambition to expand Alfred the Great
defeats Danes at Ethandun
their frontiers as much as they can. What’s striking is not how much the
[Edington in Wiltshire] c950
Church has changed, but how Constantine and unifes England
established such a firm footing that the Russian Princess
I would say that human psychology is
Olga converts to
probably much the same from age to age. Christian Church of today is recognisably Christianity
954
It’s a mistake to patronise the past. We think the Christian Church that he left behind.
Permanent union of
these people are not our intellectual equals Michael Portillo England established 1054
Great Schism:
Eastern and Western
Churches split
8 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 9
ike most African- before I made this film. At school you’re
Caribbean kids of taught 1066, the Industrial Revolution,
my generation, I the Second World War – nobody talks about
went to church. the Dark Ages as a starting-point
At my Pentecostal for understanding what Englishness is.
Church they told So I had the opportunity to rethink what this
me I was a child history meant for me.
of God and what
was important was getting ready for heaven, When Augustine came to England as a
whereas at my comprehensive school I was missionary to convert the pagans, King
a black kid and the task was trying to get Aethelbert, in Kent, had a wife, Bertha, who
through the educational system. When I was was already a Christian. He twigged that if
about 14 I decided to take my education you convert to Christianity you don’t just
more seriously and use the experience of transform yourself spiritually, you also get
being black in Britain to interrogate the the benefits of Christianity. In the ancient
faith tradition I was brought up in. world that meant literacy, a law code, trade,
and an opportunity to expand the esteem
My first degree focused on politics and and value of your kingdom by engaging with
religion. I got into black theology, a this Europe-wide religion.
discipline that had emerged out of the
civil rights and black power movements “Is it political expediency
in North America in the 1960s – looking
at how black political cultural nationalism or is it a deep religious
gets mixed with revolutionary Christianity experience that leads
to produce a political faith.
monarchs to convert?”
For the last 10 years I’ve been writing
about African and African-Caribbean religious There’s always a tension: is it political
traditions in Britain. I am critical of the expediency or is it a deep religious
tendency of Churches to interpret everything experience that leads monarchs to
through a spiritual lens and I’ve argued that convert? There were Kings who converted to
you need to understand things economically, Christianity and then went to battle with
politically and culturally as well. no weapons, but just with a cross, thinking
Jesus was going to somehow help them
So for example, if there’s a school where win against their fully armed-up opponents.
the African-Caribbean kids are failing Then there are examples like Aethelbert.
educationally, the Church will set up a Our scholars would say his conversion was
supplementary school instead of saying to political expediency – not really a spiritual
the mainstream school: we are paying taxes conversion but a sense that there were
for you to educate our kids, not miseducate political and economic benefits to be gained.
them. That inability to translate the Gospel
message into a political and social theory One unique thing about English religious
has limited black Church life. I didn’t know a experience is that there is a synthesis
great deal about the Dark Ages in England between the state and the Church, so by
10 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 11
“At the very formation 1095
Pope Urban II
the time we get to King Alfred, the two have
of England as a political proclaims First
Crusade
become one. The film shows how this created unity, there is a sense that 1096
Crusaders reach
a way of understanding England as fluid, Englishness is not fixed; Constantinople
not politically fixed. You could come into
this entity known as Enga-land and be a it’s dynamic, on a journey.” 1097
Crusaders besiege
Dane, an Angle, a Saxon or a Celt, and you Antioch and slaughter
could do your own thing as long as you were a positive, constructive way. At Sutton Hoo, 1099 thousands of
willing to be subject to the King and adhere for example, archaeologists discovered Crusaders take Turkish Muslims
to the traditions of Christianity. This suggests ornate jewellery, fantastic ships – these pagans Jerusalem and
that, at the very formation of England as were really quite sophisticated and not the massacre inhabitants 1122
a political unity, there is a sense that bloodthirsty, knife-wielding, long-haired Concordat of
Englishness is not fixed; it’s dynamic, on brutal people they’re often presented as. Worms ends divine
a journey. That contrasts radically with right of kings
1145–1149
how England is often presented today, as if During the filming we went to one location Second Crusade
Episode 4:
what it means to be English is set in stone. in the north of the England where the Fall of the Crusader
state of Edessa 1187
Christian Church and the altar are directly
Saladin recaptures
On one level the film is a critique of in front of a mound where the pagans used
Crusades
Jerusalem from
fundamentalism. One of the high points for to bury their dead. Archaeologists skimmed Christian rule
me was going to Lindisfarne and seeing the the top part of the mound and found the 1189–1192
Third Crusade
Lindisfarne Gospels. These monks in the 8th bodies of single men – the monks were buried headed by Philip II
century pulled together images and symbols on top of the pagans, which demonstrates of France and Richard 1215
from the known world to embellish their how Christianity built on top of paganism. the Lionheart of Fourth Lateran Council
rewriting of the Gospels. So what they were Some of those traditions are still here: Rageh Omaar, the war correspondent England among other things
doing wasn’t just translation, it was also saying Christmas day and Easter are pagan festivals specifies procedures
who became famous for his reports from Iraq, c1225–1274 against heresy
to everyone: ‘You are included in this story, in that Christianity built on; even the days of reveals how Pope Urban’s interpretation of Thomas Aquinas,
this message of Jesus; you are part of it.’ the week represent pagan deities. theologian and
Christianity led people to kill for Christ and 1308–1321
philosopher
traces how jihad as we understand it today Dante Alighieri’s Divine
It’s the first example where we have a I would argue that all religious traditions
dates from the Muslim world’s response to Comedy, an allegory of
multicultural Christianity in England, an are synchronistic; they all are mixed with
the Crusades. the Christian afterlife
attempt to pull together different cultural primary religious beliefs, whether it’s 1337–1417
ideas and say that they are part of the paganism in England or animism in other Hundred Years War
Gospel and have a place within the Christian parts of the world. I’m not against it, I think
c1350
message. For me that’s a counter to attempts that’s what Christianity is all about. It brings Start of Renaissance
to link religion to a singular identity, which elements of Judaism into the 1st century in Italy
can lead to ethnocentrism and a kind of ethnic world of Jesus, then Paul mixes them all
particularity – us against them. It also together and produces Christianity. 1378–1423
Great Western Schism
challenges fundamentalism which attempts splits Roman Catholic Church
to fix identity and fix religion by claiming that Making this film was an incredible journey. 1380 –1382
things must be read literally, in just one way. Re-imagining what Englishness meant, not as John Wycliffe
translates Old
something narrow and fixed, but as something
and New Testaments
What was crucial was that the Pope which is broad and flexible, and developing 1431 into English
encouraged his missionaries to build on an understanding of England that I feel Joan of Arc martyred
pagan religion, not demolish it. In the comfortable with, has transformed me.
programme we represent paganism in Robert Beckford 1450s
Gutenberg begins
printing the Bible
12 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 13
he First Crusades before the First Crusades – fighting the devil army; they brought their wives, their
happened over 900 in prayer. But the Crusades made fighting “In the Middle East kids, and they won battles that they
years ago, but they and killing an act of worship. everyone is aware of the really should have lost. It was purely
threw up issues that their religious devotion, their fanaticism
we’re still living with When Pope Urban declared that Christian history of the Crusades if you like, that kept them going.
today – Christianity’s lands in the Middle East had to be freed from and it means foreign
relationship with the ‘pollution’ of Islam, and Christians went We wonder today how on earth a religious
Islam, Islam’s view to fight a Holy War, Muslims who had been
Western armies coming person could commit murder, kill innocent
of the western world, divided amongst different kingdoms realised to the Middle East.” people and say they’re doing it for God. But
war and violence that they had to fall back on something akin it’s happened throughout history. During the
blended into Christian religious belief to what the Christians were doing in order to coming to the Middle East. The Crusades are Crusades it wasn’t Muslims but people of
and how Muslim people reacted to it. fend off these foreigners. The legacy that left also an amazing human story. Medieval another faith, and they were doing it because
for Muslims is the idea that jihad should Europe was a closed, insular world. There they believed this was what Jesus wanted
I was brought up as a Muslim and I’ve actually mean Holy War, struggling for weren’t nation states, just battling feudal good and faithful Christians to do. I
reported on different jihadist movements your religion against invaders. warlords. The genius of Pope Urban was remember clearly when George W Bush
in the Middle East over the last eight years to convince people that doing what they used the word ‘crusade’ in relation to
but, speaking to different experts for this A few days after the war started in Gaza, did every day – fighting, conquering and killing launching the ‘War on Terror’ immediately
programme, it was clear that much of what Osama bin Laden released a recording on – could be turned against an outside enemy after 11th September. I was watching the
we understand today as jihad came out of behalf of al-Qaeda, calling for a jihad against and that this would bring them closer to their speech with a crowd of Muslims in the
the Muslim world’s reaction to the First what he called the crusading Zionists. The Maker. It was a neat trick to get otherwise Middle East, and the instant the word came
Crusades. The Qur’an talks about jihad but jihadist movement today sees itself not as decent people to walk 3,000 miles through out of his mouth it had an impact. Why on
that means ‘struggle’, an inward struggle, a fighting Christians but as fighting Crusaders, Europe and the Balkans, across what are earth did he use that word? In the Middle
bit like what Holy War meant for Christianity by which they mean westerners who are today Turkey and Syria. This was a rag-tag East stories are passed down from generation
14 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 151453
Constantinople
falls to the
1478 Ottoman Empire
to generation. Everyone is aware of the Middle East. When Muslims talk about the Spanish Inquisition
founded by Ferdinand 1492
history of the Crusades and it means foreign Crusades, it’s nothing to do with Christianity
and Isabella Christopher Columbus
Western armies coming to the Middle East. because they’ve lived side by side with discovers West Indies.
Eastern Christians, Orthodox Christians, His first voyage begins
1494
What struck me in making this film is that who thought the idea of Holy War was an Spanish colonisation
Treaty of Tordesillas
the reverse is true in the West. Most people anathema. They associate the Crusades with of New World
divides New World
are not aware of what the Crusades were, the West and Western power. And one has to Jews expelled
between Portugal
from Spain
and the word has come to mean something remember that Saladin ended the Crusader and Spain
good, noble – a crusade against drugs, a kingdoms in the Holy Land and there was 1509–1564
crusade against drink driving. But, given the Muslim rule for seven or eight hundred years. John Calvin, French
1512 Protestant theologian
world we live in, it was the worst word George It was only in the 19th century that suddenly Copernicus
W Bush could have used because it’s a gift the Crusades were rediscovered, and that circulates to
to organisations like al-Qaeda, who want coincided with Western imperial rule and the friends his theory
to say, ‘Don’t believe them when they say partition of Middle Eastern countries. that the earth 1517
they’re coming to fight for democracy. They’re orbits the sun Martin Luther
publishes 95 Theses
coming as the Crusaders came 900 years One thing that is often overlooked about the
1518 against corruption in
ago, to subjugate you, to occupy your land.’ First Crusade is the pogroms against Jews in
Episode 5:
Son of king of the the Catholic Church
Europe as the Crusaders went towards the Congo, Dom Henrique,
Holy Land. Today the notion of the Crusades consecrated as
“In the minds of quite a lot still impacts on the Palestinian-Israeli first bishop from 1520
Reformation
sub-Saharan Africa Luther
of people, rightly or wrongly, conflict. In the minds of Palestinians the
creation of Israel and the Zionist movement
excommunicated
the occupation of the is tied in with Crusaders, because Jewish
1522
Luther
West Bank and Gaza are emigration to Palestine in the early 20th produces German
century was from Eastern and Western translation of 1520s
effectively the same as Europe. It may have been Jewish and it may Outspoken MP, Ann Widdecombe New Testament Henry VIII
the Crusader settlement.” have been Zionist, but this was seen as just describes how her feeling that the Church
sets himself
up as head of the
another Western colonisation. And in the 1525–1534
of England had lost its focus led to her William Tyndale
Church in England
minds of quite a lot of people, rightly or personal reformation and conversion to translates New
To have any impact on this people need to wrongly, the occupation of the West Bank Catholicism, and why she believes that Testament 1534
start being aware of other people’s histories. and Gaza are effectively the same as the into English Act of Parliament
Martin Luther had no idea of the violence
A Palestinian historian in the programme Crusader settlement. makes England’s break
his campaign would unleash. from Rome official
said that he just wanted a Western audience 1543
to be aware of his history, his narrative of Today it has become very difficult to Copernicus publishes
how he sees the Crusades. Not to accept it, separate religion from politics, but I think it On the Revolutions 1547
of the Celestial Spheres Protestant Edward VI
just to be aware of it. And he would also ask is possible. The vast majority of people do
in the year of his death, succeeds Henry VIII
his fellow Arabs to be aware of the Christian not want to live their lives that way. I think
narrative of the Crusades. I think there’s this programme and the whole series shows 1549
too much history and too much of a one- that when politicians, whether in the 10th, Book of Common
1553
dimensional view of the Crusades in the Arab the 11th or the 21st century, mix their idea Prayer published
Mary I becomes Queen.
world, and almost nothing on the other side. of religion, faith and duty with their political A devout Catholic, she
responsibilities, it ends up leading to a has 288 Protestants
1558
People also forget that there is a long- disaster for all of us. Elizabeth I, a Protestant,
burned for heresy
established community of Christians in the Rageh Omaar comes to the throne 1560
John Knox founds
Scottish Presbyterian
Church
16 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 17was brought up in a through a period of agnosticism. I came back I jumped at the chance to make this has got to be right – now we take it for
very strong Anglican as an Anglican which, possibly, was programme because I’m particularly granted that we can all read the Bible. It was
tradition. My uncle was a mistake. The debate surrounding the interested in the Reformation, which tore the a great moment when I went to Wartburg
a vicar, my brother is a ordination of women was the last straw. Church apart. I believe the medieval Church Castle and saw the Luther Bible. He was also
vicar, my nephew’s just It wasn’t about whether it was theologically was in need of urgent and sweeping reform. right to wage a massive campaign against
become a vicar. Church possible (I But Martin Luther was proposing more some of the more corrupt practices in the
and Sunday school didn’t think it than just an attack on corruption; Catholic Church. But the tragedy of the
were absolutely taken was); it was all he was mounting a challenge to Reformation was that, instead of being a
for granted as part of about how, if we the very nature and structure of movement for reform from within, it became
my life. My secondary don’t do this, we’re not going the Church. He could never have the tool of politicians and zealots. It set
school was a Roman to be in tune with the modern world. realised it but he was unleashing one of the Christian against Christian; communities
Catholic convent but I felt no inclination To me, the Church should lead, not follow. greatest political and religious revolutions in were divided for generations.
whatever to join the Catholic Church. Europe’s history. Five centuries ago I could
So 15 years ago I went through my have been beheaded as a traitor or burned There is still a strong core of Protestantism in
When I was 18 I was confirmed into the own personal reformation. The Church alive as a heretic. this country whose adherents actively dislike
Anglican Church but, over the years that of England had abandoned its roots and Roman Catholicism. When the Queen visited
followed, I felt that the Church of England traditions, and seemed immersed instead Luther believed that the Bible Westminster Cathedral, there was a large
was departing from its purpose. It was in the liberalism and political correctness should be accessible to demonstration outside. She wasn’t going to a
always compromising; it didn’t seem to of the modern world. I didn’t feel I all Christians, so he Mass; she was doing no more than going into
know what it believed and always wanted to belonged there any more, so I left translated it into the the cathedral for a service that embraced the
follow current fashions. Later still I went and became a Roman Catholic. vernacular. That Christian faith, not just Catholics.
18 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 191562
John Hawkins
1572 leads first British
St Bartholomew’s slaving expedition
I found the Lewes bonfire night the most that the history of Christianity is all about
Day Massacre:
difficult bit of the film. When they were violence. It is true that, at various points of up to 4,000
burning the Pope in effigy, to hear them Christian history, politicians have tried to 1588
Protestants are
The Pope blesses
shouting, ‘No Popery! Burn him! Burn him!’ harness it for their own ends. That’s what slaughtered in Paris
Spanish Armada
even if they didn’t really mean it, was very Henry VIII did. He was in a struggle with as a Crusade
disturbing. I wished I hadn’t gone there. I the Pope and, lo and behold, the Reformation 1600 against England
was also shocked that Ian Paisley, in this was ever so convenient for him. Italian philosopher
day and age, was still prepared to say that Giordano Bruno burnt
at the stake for heresy
the Pope was the anti-Christ. I gave him a There is virtually nothing that a politician 1603
for expounding the
chance to soften that – I said, ‘Hang on, do won’t harness for his own ends, whether James I of England/
ideas of Copernicus
you really mean that?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ good or evil. A good politician, though, will James VI of Scotland
1605 rules Great Britain
harness a mood. Today, when there are all
The reason that shocked me so much was manner of worries in our society about Gunpowder Plot
to assassinate
because I’ve known Paisley for many years; rampant materialism, selfishness, teenage
Episode 6:
James I
we’ve got together on lots of moral issues in pregnancies, the obsession with sex, I think 1609
the Commons and I’ve always regarded him people look round and say, ‘Hang on, some Baptist Church
1610 founded by
as a friend. But even now, after all that has of this has gone a bit too far.’ But they’ve no
Dark
Using the telescope John Smyth
happened in Northern Ireland, he thinks it is idea what to do about it; they’re all islands he has created,
appropriate to call the Pope the anti-Christ. if you like. Galileo proves
Copernicus’ theory
Continents
that the earth and 1611
If the Reformation had been handled I think the Church has got to regain its
planets revolve King James
differently we could have had all the benefits role in dispensing moral wisdom, in calling (Authorised)
around the sun
of what Luther did and none of the downside. people to account for themselves, in Version of the
I think the sort of gentle reforms we’ve seen reminding people that there is a judgement Bible in English
in the Second Vatican Council, which have to come, that what we do does matter. The 1620
Pilgrim Fathers
nothing to do with doctrine but everything Anglican Church has backed off there and sail for America
to do with the rules of the Church, are to be I don’t think the Catholic Church has, but Writer and playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah
on the Mayflower 1625
profoundly welcomed. If only the Reformation the Catholic Church tends to talk to itself. reflects on how the history of slavery is entwined r Charles I comes
had been carried out like that. But Luther with Christianity, and is intrigued by the way, all to the throne
1653–1658
couldn’t control what he unleashed. People are terribly afraid of being over the world, people create images of Jesus Oliver Cromwell
judgemental, of saying, ‘That is wrong,’ and Mary that look like themselves. ruler of England
if you’re doing something wrong. It 1660
“The tragedy of the doesn’t mean you can’t be forgiven or Royal Africa Company
Reformation was that, are beyond redemption, but you are
1673
given a monopoly over
English slave trade
instead of being a doing something wrong. Test Act excludes
Catholics from
movement for reform from That is the message which should come public office 1690
within, it became the tool from the pulpit, but it should also come William III defeats
through the media. The hierarchy of the James II at the
of politicians and zealots.” Church should be standing up and saying 1701 Battle of the
Society for the Boyne in Ireland
to Britain, ‘Don’t just look at the government,
Propagation of the
The basic tenet of Christianity is: ‘Love thy look at individuals, look at yourselves, what Gospel in Foreign Parts
neighbour.’ It has inspired tremendous works you are doing is wrong.’ established 1738
down the years and I don’t accept the view Ann Widdecombe John and Charles
Act of Settlement restricts Wesley start
British royal succession Methodist movement
to Protestants in Britain
20 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 21have traced my family expressive worship so it didn’t really frighten
story back to the West me, but it frightened some of the crew
Indies, to a sugar members. Even though the congregation
plantation, where my was middle class and quite intellectual,
ancestors worked as many of them were not aware of Christianity
slaves for a British having first arrived in Africa via Ethiopia and
master. I discovered that not via the missionary experience.
they had originally come
from Ghana in Africa. At I define myself as an Afrocentric Christian
school I was taught that – one who views Christianity through the
David Livingstone was a great hero – one of lens of Ethiopia and not Rome. Arriving in
many missionaries who went to Africa as Lalibela in the Ethiopian Highlands was
colonialists to open up the world’s ‘dark amazing. They call it the Jerusalem of Africa.
continents’ to European civilisation and It is thought that Christianity was brought
convert their heathen inhabitants to here by Greek and Egyptian monks in the
Christianity. But this colonial enterprise 4th century, but some Ethiopians claim their
also enslaved millions of people. faith goes right back to Old Testament times.
The slaves who survived the horrific journey
to the Caribbean didn’t just lose their “I define myself as an
freedom, they lost their African identity as Afrocentric Christian –
well. That’s how my family first encountered
Christianity. My original family name was
one who views Christianity
Roberts, which was the name of my through the lens of
ancestors’ last slave master. When I Ethiopia and not Rome.”
discovered my family’s history I decided
to reclaim my African identity and take a
Ghanaian name. I’d seen pictures of the churches in the
rock but it’s a bit like looking at a football
I go to Ghana often, but making this film stadium through a keyhole. When you get
meant looking at it through the lens of a there, the scale, the magnitude of it – it’s
Church, through the evangelical movement, like seeing one of the wonders of the world.
the pre-evangelical movement, and the Looking at their 500-year-old Bible was
African spirit world. I learned so much wonderful. It has five more books than
about religious structures and why different the Bible we use. All of a sudden you
cultures latch on to different manifestations understand that what we have been
of Christianity. We went to a mega-Church told is absolute truth, is actually not.
with thousands of people in the congregation,
and arrived in the middle of what they call The Mexican experience – climbing the
the Jericho Hour – an hour of very intense pyramid at Chichen Itza, and seeing these
prayer. I defy anyone to enter into that arena structures, these magnificent manifestations
and not feel something. Some people might of their Creator – was also amazing. The
feel fear, others might feel revulsion. As an early Mayans merged their religion with
African-Caribbean I’m used to that form of Christianity – stuffed their idols inside
22 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 231789
Outbreak of
Christian idols and found ways of making I’m certainly not evangelical about it. French Revolution
them the same person. And La Virgen Morena, My mother was devoutly Christian, my Former slave Olaudah
1807
the Brown Virgin, was an example of people brothers and sisters all are, so I’m the rebel Equiano publishes
Slave Trade Act
creating an icon in their own image. in the bunch. As I say in the film, I access his autobiography
in Britain abolishes
Ishua or Jesus in the same way that I access slave trade but not
In Ethiopia images of the Virgin Mary look Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey, who gave slavery itself 1829
Ethiopian. I think any person of faith who is their lives to the dispossessed, who British Parliament
troubled by images of Jesus that don’t challenged the status quo, elevating those grants Catholic
1833 emancipation
portray him as white Caucasian has to who might not be able to help themselves,
understand why Europeans needed their articulating truths that allow people to live Slavery Abolition
Act abolishes
Jesus and their God to look like them. We to their higher selves.
slavery in most of
should not accept that these are actual the British Empire 1834
representations of the Creator; they’re simply
there for our simple brains to be able to grasp
“In 1900 there were just Spanish Inquisition
officially abolished
Episode 7:
the concept, whatever culture we’re from. 10 million Christians in 1838
Africa; today there are over Slavery
We are more anti-religion in Europe than abolished
390 million...”
God and the
people in the developing world and America. in the
British Empire 1843
I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing for
Church of Scotland
people not to believe. I have issues with In 1900 there were just 10 million splits over separation
Scientists
religion, myself. I don’t describe myself as a Christians in Africa; today there are over of Church and state
1859
religious man but as someone who has faith. 390 million, and they are beginning
Charles Darwin
to challenge the Western Christian publishes
If I had seen the Creator in someone who establishment, particularly over issues On the Origin
was a Buddhist or a Muslim, I would have like women priests and homosexuality, of Species 1868–1870
not issues that I agree with. But the real First Vatican Council
been a Buddhist or a Muslim. I saw what I
Eminent scientist and uncompromising defines doctrine of
perceived to be the Creator in someone who challenge is not just about social values papal infallibility
happened to be a Christian, therefore I was but about the faith itself. These new atheist Colin Blakemore is suspicious 1905
able to access the Creator through that lens. Christians have harnessed a powerful of Christianity’s ability to adapt its previously French law
spiritual force which many churches unshakeable tenets in response to the passed on
separation of
Also, in Europe the Church has been in the West have abandoned. challenge of scientific, evidence-based 1914–1918
Church and state
associated with the state and with the explanations of how the world works. World War I
oppression, or indoctrination, of the masses. They believe that Europe now needs
And so it’s quite healthy that we view converting to the true faith. I think their 1915–1917
religion and religious structures as dodgy. proposition is that the West has got too Armenian Genocide
comfortable; it thinks it is its own God. And
Faith for me is very personal; it allows me there is some truth in that. But one can also
1917
to believe in something greater than myself. have an intellectual relationship with faith.
Russian Revolution
When I have done everything that I humanly We have to be careful sometimes not just
can, I perceive that I have somewhere else to see religion as something to make you
to go. Without getting too pompous, prayer feel good – I think we can and must apply 1925
for me is like communion, a conversation stringent intellectual mechanisms to faith. John Scopes
convicted of
with my deeper self and what that is
breaking Tennessee
connected to throughout the universe. Kwame Kwei-Armah law by teaching
evolution
24 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 25I was confirmed in the a little bit odd! Four hundred years ago it was
Church of England at stoutly defended as the absolute truth. So if
about the age of 14 but you’re not going to defend what scripture
was already beginning says when it comes to historical facts or
to harbour doubts. I saw theories about how the world was made,
that science could offer why should you defend miracles, the virgin
explanations for things birth or life after death?
for which religion had
previously been the only There is a resurgence of alternative belief
source of evidence. By the systems, which I think reflects people’s
time I went to university I’d pretty much deep desire to understand the world,
abandoned all religious belief. combined with increasing ignorance of how
science works. Religions offer explanations
I like the Church tradition and the long that are fundamentally wrong but are
cultural history yet, with every decade nevertheless appealing. It’s curious that,
that’s gone by, religion has had less and after four or five hundred years of scientific
less significance for me. You can’t just explanation giving human beings the
dismiss religious belief if you’re a humanist capacity to do amazing things, there is an
or an atheist, but I genuinely think that a undeniable trend for people to revert back to
scientifically based, pragmatic approach, alternative belief systems, including in the
based on real knowledge, can offer the kinds West, and particularly in the United States.
of fundamental securities that used to come
from religious belief.
“It’s a bit worrying to find
One key feature of Christianity is its capacity that a belief system which
to accommodate, to transform itself, to
evolve. That makes me a bit suspicious
has influenced hundreds of
about its integrity. What kind of belief millions of people around
system can yield to scientific evidence which the world can shift and
contradicts all the scriptural doctrines about
how the universe was created and how life
move as the demands arise.”
was formed? As a scientist one tries to look
for fundamental secure facts that don’t It’s odd that the first country whose
compromise and accommodate, which one constitution separated Church and state
hopes are robust and good forever. It’s a bit should be a bastion of Christianity. I think
worrying to find that a belief system which it’s partly explained by the geographical
has influenced hundreds of millions of separation of the United States from the
people around the world can shift and gradual evolution of philosophy and science
move as the demands arise. and the retreat of Christianity in Europe. The
USA was established by believers who left
A line that’s increasingly taken is that the their home countries because they were
Bible is metaphorical and allegorical; it persecuted, often for their religious beliefs.
reflects the culture in which it was written Those beliefs were fundamental and simple,
but shouldn’t be taken literally. Well that’s and that thread still runs through America.
26 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 271939
Hitler invades
As the film shows, the word fundamentalism’ Of course it is difficult to rule out the Poland, starting
1942–1945 World War II
originated in the USA in the early 20th possibility of a benign, intelligent deity
Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’, the
century. People with a more sophisticated which generated the world we live in and culmination of the Holocaust
view of religion argue that human beings tinkers occasionally in its workings but in which six million Jews are
want answers to important questions which basically set it up to run according to the murdered; victims of Nazis also 1944
science can never address. They are usually rules of science. But why even postulate included Gypsies, homosexuals, First woman
questions that begin with ‘why’, like ‘Why such a bizarre notion for all kinds of things Slavs, people with disabilities, ordained as
dissidents and others Priest in Anglican
are we here?’ I think these are non-questions that we now understand in terms of the
Communion
because there are no real answers to them. laws of physics?
in Hong Kong
Science does a brilliant job at answering the 1947
questions that begin with ‘how’ – ‘How do Despite a desire for supernatural Discovery of first
things work?’ ‘How was the world created?’ explanations that’s embedded in all of us, Dead Sea Scrolls 1948
– but it cannot address the question of why we have invented political systems which State of Israel
we are here. But is that really a question are basically pacifistic; we are learning to founded in Palestine
World Council of
which is worth asking? understand people who aren’t related to us, 1951
Episode 8:
Churches founded
we have concerns for the environment, all of World Evangelical
The interesting question is why people which run against the natural inclinations of Alliance founded
everywhere ask those sorts of questions, human beings. So we do have the capacity 1961
The Future of
and why supernatural beliefs are found in to stand back, but we never completely New English Bible
all human cultures. It’s a bit like language: overcome the pressures of our own genes. 1962–1965 (New Testament)
Second published
all people use language even though the For instance, most people accept the earth
Christianity
exact form of it is different from place to goes around the sun and yet we all describe Vatican Council
introduces
place. The anthropologist, the biologist, the the sun as rising, because that’s the way it
many progressive
geneticist, would take the universality of looks. We can live simultaneously with both changes including 1963
language as evidence that it’s built into our levels of understanding. dropping Good Martin Luther King
genes. So by the same argument you might Friday prayer for leads civil rights
say that religion is in our genes. My own view is that as over the last 500 the conversion march in
years, more and more of the territory that Lawyer and committed Catholic, Cherie Blair of the Jews Washington DC
grapples with the legal and moral dilemmas and makes
How that has happened is a scientific was the domain of religion has been ceded ‘I Have a Dream’
thrown up by the genocides and human rights 1968
question which interests a lot of people. to scientific explanation. We’ll just see that speech
Martin Luther King
It reflects a way we have come to think of process go on. It may take a long time and abuses of the last century. She explains her own
assassinated
each other which is equally flawed but which occur at different rates in different countries, enduring beliefs and assesses how the Church Start of Liberation 1970
works. We think that other people operate their cultures and religions, but there will be an handled the liberalisation of the 1960s. Theology New English Bible
free will, making their decisions because they inevitable trend for science to substitute (Old Testament)
have intentions and desires, but psychologists for the things that religion used to explain. published
and brain researchers increasingly have 1979
Moral Majority
explanations for behaviour that don’t refer In the end I think religion will just provide
founded by
to ‘intention’. But because the idea of us with metaphors and stories which can Jerry Falwell 1989
‘intention’ works so well in communicating be illuminating, telling us a bit about human First woman
with other people, we project that belief nature, providing a historical background to ordained
system on to the world around us. When how our culture emerged but no more realistic 2007 as a Bishop in
Pope Benedict Protestant Episcopal
we see a phenomenon we don’t understand and convincing than the Genesis creation
reinstates older Church in USA
we tend to ask intentional questions such story is to most Western Christians now. version of Latin Mass
as ‘Who’s done this? ‘What was it done for?’ including Good Friday
and that’s what generates the idea of God. Colin Blakemore prayer for the Jews
g
28 Christianity: A History Christianity: A History 29You can also read
