56 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A well-done documentary survey of church history, October 15, 2005
Be advised that Amazon is combining the reviews of the VHS set of this series 'Christianity: The First Thousand Years' with the reviews of the DVD set which combines the first thousand years and the second thousand years. Thus, some reviews will only refer to the first thousand years (those who have reviewed the VHS set), and other reviews will cover the entire history of Christianity (those who have reviewed the DVD set). My review will cover both, with an emphasis on the first thousand years, but also addressing briefly the second thousand years.
The series 'Christianity: The First Thousand Years', narrated by Ozzie Davis and Ruby Dee, was originally entitled 'The Rise of Christianity'. From the outset, the narrator states the purpose of this series as not being a look at the Bible or theological and spiritual ideas, but rather a history of the church, of Christendom and the whole institution of Christianity. Because this was done in four, fifty-minute episodes (roughly 250 years per segment), the history has had to be more selective than history ordinarily is. The documentary navigates a good and interesting course between major figures, events and ideas and interesting trivia and elements of the Christian experience.
Given the audio-visual nature of the documentary, there are lots of pictures of artwork, architecture, archaeological/historical sites, and re-creations of events; there is also a good deal of music as a background - in the first thousand years, the primary music of the church was plainsong and chant, so that is most frequently used here (besides the orchestrated theme and background music that turns up regularly).
One of the limitations of the audio-visual medium of documentaries is that deep theological issues cannot be examined in detail - one hopes that one of the benefits of a series like this is to spur interest in reading the actual works of the people being discussed. For example, a few excerpts from Augustine's 'Confessions' are used in that segment, but there is so much to Augustine that it is impossible even in a full documentary focussing exclusively on him to give more than a passing acquaintance with his work to the viewers. This is true for all major theological thinkers, from any era.
Another area of interest is in the historical development of Europe overall, during the first thousand years, and the spread of the church as the Europeans spread throughout the world, during the second thousand years. Again, the purpose of the documentary being to explore the history of the church, one should not expect a full historical development even of the areas directly touched upon - still, this documentary does a good job at setting the overall context in political, social, military, economic and intellectual terms.
This is a history produced in broad strokes - the overall aspects and trends of Christian history come through in good form, even if the details are not as fully developed as an historian might care to have. We have used these videos in church history classes at my seminary as a supplement to the primary texts and history surveys that students read - this really does help bring history to life.
The scholars represented on this video come from a very diverse background - the Roman Catholic and Orthodox members of the scholar team on this documentary may be surprised to find themselves classified and dismissed as 'Jesus Seminar types' (particularly people like Eastern Orthodox Archbishop Kalistos Ware); interestingly, this is not a documentary about the Bible, either what it says or how it was made - in this regard, that might be one of the gaps of this particular documentary series (how the Bible was made gets relatively little space in this video). On the other hand, A&E have another series, 'Who Wrote the Bible', which involves scholars, theologians and religious leaders who were involved in the production (and again, a diverse bunch - Jerry Falwell would not qualify as a 'Jesus Seminar' type either).
This is a very good video series for the novice, the general interest seeker, and for students and pastors who want an introduction or refresher into the overall scope of church history.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Remarkable diversity of perspective, August 3, 2004
This review is from: Christianity-The First Two Thousand Years (DVD)
The producers of this film went to great pains to collect a diversity of talking heads. Their scholars span the spectrum from Stuart of Gordon Conwell and Justo Gonzalez to head of the Jesus Seminar. There are women scholars, popular writers and religious professionals in every imaginable garb, reflecting together on the history of the church. The visuals are of mixed quality. Several of the images are repeated ad nausium and the dramatizations are not very well done. However the content is relatively helpful. There are times when the film leaves remarkable latitude for traditional accounts and other times when it cites the most critical scholarship. There also seems to be a polemical juxtaposition of praise worthy individuals and institutions gone bad (with a focus on violence). My major complaint is that the series is not comprehensive enough and often feels anecdotal. It could easily have been twice as long. However, for the constraints it is an interesting discussion.
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87 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bring Your Own Opinions With You, December 16, 2003
This review is from: Christianity-The First Two Thousand Years (DVD)
I love DVD's and I love documentaries. This is my favorite DVD of all time. A great peace of work. FYI, I am a Christian.
I realise they only have time to cover each topic once and give one point of view on it. I think they did a great job considering they are covering 2000 years of a religion.
If anyone takes this as a "liberal" view of things, I don't agree. There is no hidden agenda here. I appreciate humans giving a human perspective on things. It was nice not to see a fire and brimstone session.
This is not the word of God. It is a documenary by humans. If you remember that, you will appreciate the work and effort.
This is as good as a documentary can get.
I have a feeling many people bought this looking for some sort of divine inspiration or guidance and then they felt left down thus giving it bad reviews. Also, I think people don't like it when Christianity gets a bad rap (some of the past leaders made mistakes, let's face it, they were human). Just remember, it is a documentary, with human voices and flaws covering humans trying to find their way. It is sometimes beautiful to watch, sometimes horrible.
I thought the narration and music was excellent. I could not be more happy with a product.
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