
S01E01 The Clash of the Gods
In the first episode Waldemar Januszczak looks at how Christianity emerged into the Roman Empire as an artistic force in the third and fourth centuries. But with no description of Jesus in the Bible, how...
Across the waters of the North Sea, the Vikings launched raids on the coasts of Britain and Ireland, targeting monasteries like Lindisfarne, where monks produced illuminated manuscripts of breathtaking beauty. Yet the Vikings who terrorized Dark Age Europe spent as much time creating their own stunning artwork as they did stealing it from others.
Christianity slowly emerged from being a persecuted minority to the state religion of the Roman Empire. This episode is a history of the ways believers grappled with a way to depict Jesus. Simple symbolic meaning developed into splendid art and churches.