Summary: This program, based on detailed intelligence from the "Jesus file," focuses on Jesus' recruitment of disciples from fishermen along the Sea of Galilee, his relationship with fellow agitators Simon and Andrew, the growth of his popularity, and his lack of success preaching in Jerusalem-until he raises a man named Lazarus from the dead. This dossier also features archaeological information on a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: After King Herod passed away, his successor Antipas turned his attention to Jesus, who, like John the Baptist, was also considered a threat. In this program, the "Jesus file" reveals information on Jesus' birth, his parents, his career as a carpenter, his allegedly dissident preaching, and the mixed acceptance and opposition he incited. In addition, the ancient cities of Tiberias, Sebaste, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: When Lutheranism was born, the need for a new style of church was born along with it. Drawing on architectural examples from Germany and North America, this video connects principles of Lutheranism-for example, that everyone in the congregation should be able to see and hear everything that goes on in a service-to church shape, seating arrangement, and the placement of the altar, the pulpit,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Eighty percent of Americans—four out of five—say they are Christians. Right now they are divided over a critical social, political, and theological challenge: how to live with religious diversity in an increasingly pluralistic and polarized world. Over the past twenty years, conservative fundamentalist Christians have been front and center in politics and the media—but faith, like democracy,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program begins with the turbulent early history of the Mormon faith, from Joseph Smith's astonishing visions and the creation of “The Book of Mormon” through the Mormons' contentious and sometimes violent confrontations with their neighbors and the founding and ultimate abandonment of three major religious communities in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. The program explores the complexities...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Vatican-the world's smallest sovereign nation-is a mysterious yet widely known place made up of an intriguing mixture of religious and secular concerns. This classic program reveals a miniature world rich in history and tradition as it spotlights some of the many for whom the Vatican is a way of life, including Pope John Paul II, the Swiss Guards, the Pope's personal photographer, the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The second installment in the PBS series Jerusalem: Center of the World focuses on the city's evolution under Roman rule; its historical significance in both Christianity and Islam, past and present; the tensions that exist between Jews and Muslims in modern Jerusalem; and the uncertainties that lie ahead for the planet's most contested piece of land.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about the African Methodist Episcopal Church with the Reverend Daryl B. Ingram of the Greater Bethel A.M.E. Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Topics of discussion include the birth and growth of the A.M.E. denomination, the meaning of "African Methodist Episcopal" in the context of the Church's name, and the Church's core beliefs as articulated in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program traces the Latter-day Saints' transformation in recent decades from the status of outcasts to highly influential, mainstream players in U.S. politics and culture and into a global religion with as many as 240,000 converts annually. It is a rare look at the contemporary realities of the Mormon church as this film explores their massive missionary program, how the church has entered...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the 21st-century landscape of shopping malls and skyscrapers, capitalism appears irreligious-but beneath its secular veneer lie theological principles born in the 1500s. This program examines the rise of the Protestant work ethic and the religious foundations of Western industry; it also reveals a Protestant consciousness at the heart of social activism and the opposition to extreme...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Straddling two worlds of Christian belief, Slovak churches are places where Byzantine and Roman Catholic religious traditions meet and merge. This video analyzes eastern- and western-style Slovak church design in two ways: first, it points out their underlying similarities by tracing their architectural roots back to their common ancestor, the basilica of ancient Rome; then, to explain their...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The first installment in the PBS series Jerusalem: Center of the World covers the historical beginnings of the city; its role as the hub of ancient Israel's religion and culture; information on major Old Testament leaders in the context of Jerusalem; the Assyrian conquest of Israel and the Babylonian Exile; post-Exile Jerusalem; and the ministry of Jesus.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Transitioning from ancient Jewish narratives to the emergence of the Jesus story, this program follows theologian Robert Beckford as he studies the authorship of the Gospels and subsequent New Testament books. Beckford's itinerary stretches from Jerusalem and Bethlehem to the Turkish ruins of Ephesus, then westward to Rome, London, and Bible-Belt America-underscoring the textual evolution that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007