Orthodoxy - From Empire to Empire
Diarmaid MacCulloch explores Eastern Orthodox Christianity's fight for survival, having withstood threats from Islam, Catholicism and communism.
Today, Eastern Orthodox Christianity flourishes in the Balkans and Russia, with over 150 million members worldwide. It is unlike Catholicism or Protestantism - worship is carefully choreographed, icons pull the faithful into a mystical union with Christ, and everywhere there is a symbol of a fierce-looking bird, the double-headed eagle. What story is this ancient drama trying to tell us?
In the third part of his journey into the history of Christianity, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch charts Orthodoxy's extraordinary fight for survival. After its glory days in the eastern Roman Empire, it stood right in the path of Muslim expansion, suffered betrayal by crusading Catholics, was seized by the Russian tsars and faced near-extinction under Soviet communism.
MacCulloch visits the greatest collection of early icons in the Sinai desert, a surviving relic of the iconoclastic crisis in Istanbul and Ivan the Terrible's cathedral in Moscow to discover the secret of Orthodoxy's endurance.
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Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Diarmaid MacCulloch |
| Producer | Sian Salt |
| Director | Sian Salt |
| Executive Producer | Jean-Claude Bragard |
Broadcasts
- Thu 19 Nov 2009 21:00
Thu 19 Nov 2009 23:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD- Fri 20 Nov 2009 00:25
- Fri 20 Nov 2009 02:50
- Sun 22 Nov 2009 19:00
- Mon 23 Nov 2009 02:15
Sat 30 Jan 2010 18:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two Northern Ireland & England only- Sun 31 Jan 2010 02:35Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two Wales
- Mon 5 Apr 2010 00:20
- Sun 8 May 2011 19:00
- Mon 9 May 2011 03:00
- Sun 25 Nov 2018 19:00