The Long Search

Overview

The Long Search was a 1977 BBC documentary television series spanning 13 episodes. Presented by theatre director Ronald Eyre, the series surveyed several major world religions, including Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic Christianity. Other episodes surveyed Theraveda and Zen Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and even the New Age movement. Location filming took place in India, England, Italy, Japan, Israel, Romania, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the United States, Egypt, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Scholar of religion Ninian Smart acted as editorial consultant to the show, and also authored a companion book by the same name. The series was re-issued on DVD, and is currently distributed by Ambrose Video.

Community Rating

No ratings yet

Episodes

S01E01 Protestant Spirit USA

September 19, 1977
In the 1100 churches of Indianapolis, we see bewildering multiplicity of Protestantism. Churches with the seating and styling of deluxe first-run theaters. Services conducted with the professionalism of television spectaculars. And congregations that occupy every...

S01E02 Hinduism: 330 Million Gods

September 19, 1977
Traces the Indian religious experience in two highly contrasting locations: the bustling city of Benares where millions come to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges, and the small village of Bhith Bhagwanpur, unvisited...

S01E03 Buddhism: Footprint of the Buddha

September 19, 1977
To Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and India to discover the type of Buddhism practiced throughout southeast Asia. Among those we meet are Buddhist monks-including one American, school children, novices and housewives. Each offers something from his...

S01E04 Catholicism: Rome, Leeds and the Desert

September 19, 1977
Catholicism, especially since Vatican II, has undergone many changes. In this episode filmed in Rome, Spain and England, we discover the diversity and the unity of the religious experience labeled the Holy Catholic Church.

S01E05 Islam: There is no God but God

September 19, 1977
It is said in Islam that every child is born Muslim by nature: he has the belief in his heart of one God. Over 400 million people profess Islam, and its numbers are said to...

S01E06 Orthodox Christianity: The Romanian Solution

September 19, 1977
The Orthodox churches in Eastern Europe seem to be bound to the Communist states in essentially loveless marriages, except in Rumania. The Rumanian Orthodox Church is still seen as an important aspect of Rumania's cultural...

S01E07 Judaism: The Chosen People

September 19, 1977
What is it that makes a Jew a Jew? In New York, Elie Wiesel, author and survivor of the concentration camps, tries to define it. In London, Nobert Brainin and the Amadeus Quartet carry the...

S01E08 Religion In Indonesia: The Way of the Ancestors

September 19, 1977
There are almost 200 million people scattered across the world who belong to tribal religions that are local, exclusive and frequently animist - i.e., they believe that inanimate objects and natural phenomena possess a soul....

S01E09 Buddhism: The Land of the Disappearing Buddha

September 19, 1977
If the Buddha of India met the Buddha of Japan, would they recognize each other? To find out, this program talks to the staff in a Tokyo restaurant who keep regular Zen meditation schedules as...

S01E10 African Religions: Zulu Zion

September 19, 1977
The Zulu Independent Churches in South Africa. When Christian missionaries took the Gospel to Africa they also tried to suppress African religion and subvert African culture with their own. But since World War I, and...

S01E11 Taoism: A Question of Balance

September 19, 1977
In our search for Chinese religious experience, we go to Taiwan. A whole pantheon of gods both local and imported from the mainland are worshipped in thousands of Buddhist and Taoist temples. Several strands make...

S01E12 Alternative Lifestyles in California: West Meets East

September 19, 1977
The spiritual impulse of the time steps beyond the boundaries of religious tradition - so wrote Theodore Roszak, spokesman for the counter-culture, who is Ronald Eyre's guide to the new religious concerns of people living...

S01E13 Reflections on the Long Search

September 19, 1977
In this episode Ronald Eyre asks himself some questions. It is not a film in which he hands out diplomas to believers of the religion that pleased him best. The search, for him, began long...

You May Also Like

Video Girl Ai

Video Girl Ai

1992 7.2
Stranger Things

Stranger Things

2016 8.6
Loki

Loki

2021 8.2
Chernobyl

Chernobyl

2019 8.7
Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad

2008 8.9
Friends

Friends

1994 8.4