Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Baptist churches with the Reverend Wallace Charles Smith, senior minister at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Topics of discussion include the core principles of individual soul liberty, congregant equality, and church autonomy; the right of every Baptist to interpret the Bible in his or her own way; the impetus of post-Civil War...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: The iconography of hell-a grim warning and arguably a form of behavior control-dates back to ancient times. This program surveys the landscape of damnation as it has been portrayed as Tartarus, Gehenna, Hell, Jahannam, Naraka, and modern-day apocalyptic horror. Representative works of art include the doom painting at Salisbury's Church of St. Thomas, Lorenzo Maitani's relief The Last Judgment...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Hinduism with Sadhvi Vrnda Chaitanya of Arsha Vijnana Mandiram. Topics of discussion include the history of Hinduism; the Vedas, which are typically committed to memory; the meaning of the words karma, samsara, and moksha and their relationship to one other; the concept that everything is God and that secular and sacred therefore are one;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Containing nearly a sixth of the world's population, India is home to almost a billion people, more than half of whom live in rural villages. This program provides an overview of topics such as the caste system as it exists in the holy Hindu town of Varanasi and the massive pilgrimages to Allahabad, where millions of Hindus come to ritually bathe at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: A 14th-century English mystic who enclosed herself for life in order to fully develop her relationship with God after a series of revelations, Julian of Norwich and her writings are still studied by Christian theologians. Her prose, some of the most terrifying and compelling, is the first to refer to God as "She," forging the way for inclusive language that is used in many Bibles today. This...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Throughout history, the crucifix has been to Christians a symbol both of suffering and of overcoming suffering. How, in a world filled with genocide, pandemics, and mass starvation, has Christianity been able to reconcile the concept of divine mercy with rampant human misery? Citing the story of Job, Angela of Foligno, and Archbishop Oscar Romero, this program examines the roots of faith within...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Quakerism with Deborra Sines Pancoe, a member of Abington Friends Meeting in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Topics of discussion include definitions of the terms Quaker and Friend, George Fox and the founding of Quakerism, William Penn and his "Holy Experiment," unprogrammed and programmed worship among different denominations of Friends, the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: This program discusses the significance of rituals, and the necessity for defined sacred space both traditional and nontraditional. Rituals discussed include the Eucharist, or Communion, meditation, and others. The practice of placing the mezuzah at the door of a Jewish home is presented within the context of the home as a sacred space; Buddhist meditation ceremonies are relegated to specific...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about the United Church of Christ with Hans Holznagel of the UCC Church House in Cleveland, Ohio. Topics of discussion include how the UCC came to be, the importance of social justice in UCC philosophy, and the "God Is Still Speaking" outreach campaign and "You're Welcome Here" television advertisements. In addition, the Reverend Felix Carrion...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Prehistoric art often renders animals in spiritual, even divine, form-but primitive beast images can also reflect a degree of humanity. This program sifts through the complexity of the animal-god concept, identifying the place of the lion, the giraffe, the wolf, the elephant, and many other creatures in a wide range of myths and religions. With detailed observations of sculpture, carvings, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about the Assemblies of God with Maury Davis, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Madison, Tennessee. Topics of discussion include the riveting story of how Pastor Davis was touched by Christ while a teenage convict; background on the Pentecostal movement; Cornerstone's missionary work in Kenya; and the defining truths of Assemblies of God...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with Palos Verdes Stake President Maurice Lam. Topics of discussion include the meaning of the term Latter-day Saints, the life and death of the prophet Joseph Smith, the core values of the LDS Church, The Book of Mormon as the key to the Bible, the structure and organization of the LDS...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: An illiterate common woman, Constance of Rabastens' visions of the apocalypse and prophecies of the coming of the Antichrist resulted in her imprisonment at the hands of the Inquisition and the Archbishop of Toulouse. In this program, McMaster University's Madeleine Jeay places Constance of Rabastens in the historical context of the tumultuous 15th century, including the Hundred Years' War, the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Evangelical Protestantism with Senior Pastor Lon Solomon of McLean Bible Church, in McLean, Virginia. Topics of discussion include what it means to accept Jesus Christ as one's savior and messiah; how Pastor Solomon, raised Jewish, was himself born again in Christ; McLean's mission to impact secular Washington, D.C., with the message of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: In this program a group of young Hindus define the Bhagavad Gita's Four Paths to God and reflect on which path he or she feels the most affinity with-Bhakti (Devotion), Jnana (Knowledge), Rajah (Contemplation), or Karma (Action). With feedback from experts such as Jay Lakhani, director of the Vivekananda Centre in London, the teens examine the practices and philosophies of the paths, explaining...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Christmas, Easter, Passover, Yom Kippur, Bar or Bas Mitzvah, and other significant feasts and rituals of the Christian and Jewish faiths are discussed in this program. Jesus is shown as the role model for Christian behavior as exhibited by the early martyrs and saints. Protestantism's rejection of saints as religious icons is examined. The spiritual characters of specific modern "saints,"...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program discusses the mixture of faiths that abound in Indianapolis, and the importance of sacred space to each denomination. Martin E. Marty, of the University of Chicago Divinity School, defines sacred space as a place where individuals experience a sense of the spiritual events relevant to their faith. Visiting several places of worship about the city, we learn how size, decoration (or...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Earth's surface gave shape to the early cosmologies of almost every culture. This program explores that universal phenomenon, traveling across the globe to examine the role of geology in religion and myth. From the revered Uluru/Ayers Rock in Australia to Crete's Diktaeon cave-according to tradition, the birthplace of Zeus-the video explains the spiritual significance of numerous sites...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Native American religions with Suzan Shown Harjo, executive director of The Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C. Topics of discussion include the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978; some common aspects of the approximately 300 remaining Native American religions being practiced in the U.S. today; the concepts of a supreme...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Belief is at the heart of the world's great religions as well as the sustaining power behind the paranormal, supernatural, and occult events that grace America's tabloids. How can belief be explained, and from what deep well within the human psyche does it spring? In this program, ABC News anchor John Stossel goes to a psychology lab and even walks through fire to investigate the power of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Religion in Bali is marked by rituals of high artistry aimed at harmonizing the forces of darkness and light, as this program shows. Ancestor worship, karma, and other key concepts are illustrated through lavish, rare, high-definition footage of a cremation ceremony-considered a joyous prelude to reincarnation-a birth ceremony, a puberty rite, and a wedding. A priest explains the interplay...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: This program examines the ancient significance of sacred journeys, or pilgrimages, and why individuals undertake them. Pilgrimages are encouraged and even required by many religions. All able Muslims must go to Mecca at least once during their lifetime. Both Jews and Christians are drawn to Jerusalem. Catholics visit Rome and shrines where miracles have taken place. Mormons journey to Salt Lake...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about spiritualism with Lee Jones, founder of the Spiritualist Center in Los Angeles, California. Topics of discussion include the birth of spiritualism in the U.S. in 1848; spiritualism as a philosophy, a religion, and a science; the nature of life after death; the seance experience; anointed healings; and how to recognize an authentic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Funerals are the most common death rituals in the world, but there are other ceremonies that involve the dead, often with very different purposes. For the Aghori mystics of India, the corpse isn't something to be avoided, but rather embraced. This program examines the ways in which cultures both foreign and familiar confront the ultimate taboo. From the practice of exhuming the bones of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010