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Christianity: a History 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 prime time television to Christianity in this way. I think it’s fair to say that it’s a big risk, but a John the Baptist 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 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 nation. Episode 1: Crucifixion of Jesus Two examples of Christianity’s impact on our modern world are the Reformation and the Jesus c37 Crusades. Without the Reformation we may not have become a Protestant nation with many Conversion of Paul 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 The Jew 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 Writer Howard Jacobson talks Paul writes his letter to the Romans than that, it’s a lesson about today’s world and an attempt to shed light on the history of a of Jesus’s Jewish background, the c64 faith that continues to shape the destiny of all of us in some way or other. We hope it does continuing rift between Christianity that and that it makes just a few of us think about how we got to where we are today. Nero blames and Judaism, and why, despite not Christians for the Great Fire of Rome believing in God, he thinks knowing religious 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 is destroyed Howard Jacobson Ann Widdecombe 132–135 Final Jewish revolt, Episode 2 Rome 5 Episode 6 Dark Continents 21 Judea and Jerusalem Michael Portillo Kwame Kwei-Armah 269 erased from maps, Episode 3 Dark Ages 9 Episode 7 God and the Scientists 25 Anthony becomes and region renamed Syria Palæstina Robert Beckford Colin Blakemore a hermit – his life and actions lie 303 Episode 4 Crusades 13 at foundation of Episode 8 The Future of Christianity 29 Diocletian orders monastic movement Rageh Omaar Cherie Blair 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 was reaffirming his Jewishness. This partly 311–325 immersed in water and Eusebius, Bishop then emerging in another explains the playing down of John the of Caesarea, writes Baptist as one Gospel succeeds another. 313 Ecclesiastical History faith always seemed to ‘Edict of Milan’ me so alien.” Conversely, I did not take the measure, establishes official before I made this film, of the good toleration of 321 Christianity by Rome feeling there is out there among Christians Constantine decrees Sunday as day of rest Jewish, what I didn’t appreciate was just towards Jews, the new Vatican ruling how Jewish he was, how many of Christianity’s notwithstanding. Historians now tell a 325 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 Consecration of singing words drawn largely from the Old happened had the emotional ground not recognition to Jerusalem Basilica of St Peter 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, Episode 2: the Great over the 330 tomb of the Apostle longing and distress, and that it means in Christian art and Christian liturgy, insisting Constantinople ‘the anointed one’, not ‘Son of God’? that the Jews were a murderous and therefore inaugurated as the New Rome expendable people, and that it was almost 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 occupation – he could not be the Messiah. of something sacred to somebody else. Death of Constantine stabilise his empire, resolved the 380 For him to become the Christian Messiah You look at it and think: this is a knot that Emperor Theodosius St Paul had to invent new meanings for the will never be untied; this is insoluble.
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