This six-part series presented by Diarmaid Maculloch reveal the true origins of Christianity and delve into what it means to be a Christian. The first Christianity: Professor MacCullough goes in search of Christianity's forgotten origins. Catholicism: How did a small Jewish sect from the backwoods of Palestine, which preached humility and the virtue of poverty, become the established religion of Western Europe? Orthodoxy: Professor MacCullough discusses the tumultuous history of Eastern Orthodoxy suffering from Muslim expansion, betrayal by crusading Catholics, and facing near extinction under Soviet Communism. Reformation: Professor MacCullough makes sense of the Reformation and of how faith based on obedience and authority gave birth to one based on individual conscience. Protestantism: Professor MacCullough shows that the original Evangelical explosion was driven by a concern for social justice and the claim that you could stand in a direct emotional relationship with God. In America its preachers marketed Christianity with all the flair and swashbuckling enterprise of American commerce. In Africa it converted much of the continent by adapting to local traditions and now its expanding into Asia. God in the dock: Professor MacCullough challenges the simplistic notion that faith in Christianity has steadily ebbed away before the relentless advance of science, reason and progress and shows instead how the tide of faith perversely flows back in.

CIRC # 490 a-f\\Originally broadcast on BBC Four 2009-2010.

Episode 1. The first Christianity / produced & directed by Gillian Bancroft -- episode 2. Catholicism : the unpredictable rise of Rome / directed & produced by Sin Salt -- episode 3. Orthodoxy : from empire to empire / directed & produced by Sin Salt -- episode 4. Reformation : the individual before God / produced & directed by Gillian Bancroft -- episode 5. Protestantism : the evangelical explosion / produced & directed by Gillian Bancroft -- episode 6. God in the dock / directed & produced by Sin Salt.