BBC: Around the World in 80 Faiths

[SageTree]

Around the World in 80 Faiths

is a British television series which was first broadcast by the BBC on 2 January 2009.

Anglican vicar Peter Owen-Jones has been given a year’s sabbatical to travel the world with a BBC crew to explore different faiths around the world at the beginning of the 21st century.

This is a pretty cool show, in my opinion.

There are so many interesting ways of practicing faith and the host explores the globe to come in contact and talk with the people who practice them. While he DOES recognize his own bias he still takes a "Christianity is right" stance from time to time. However, I must mention, he's WAY more opened minded that not, he doesn't ask disrespectful or loaded questions, but just can't help it that sometimes his WASP sticks out a bit from time to time.

In all fairness to the guy though, the travel alone is intense and he still manages to meet his goal and sure has his share in heady moments of realization.

Over all, this is like a religion 101 class on an acid trip as it goes FAR FAR beyond the basic 6-10 faiths spectrum that is obviously not very inclusive, but so often presented to us.

For your enjoyment and to creating peace through understanding.



The full documentary is available here (although the Middle East section is missing) , set up in playlist format from the host: topdocumentaryfilms.com: around the world in 80 faiths

However, if you have a particular interest here is Part 1 of every show in the series (except India, which is a complete show), and you can click the text link that will take you to a show description from the Wikipedia page

Australasia and The Pacific Ring

[youtube]HghQff8GJZU[/youtube]


Far East Asia

[youtube]TNVjJlAfOmw[/youtube]


Africa

[youtube]FQk32TLkQt4[/youtube]


The Middle East

[youtube]IFbG8yQAW0g[/youtube]


North America

[youtube]-x00qDkTjSk[/youtube]


India

[youtube]QZYgpYM2DYs[/youtube]


Latin America

[youtube]uUCcw7XXVAs[/youtube]


Europe

[youtube]2-haL8qiCNc[/youtube]


:namaste
SageTree​

 

[Noaidi]

Thanks so much for this, SageTree.

This was a great series and I emailed the BBC to enquire if a DVD was available. That was last year, and no response.

Frubals for posting this.

 

[SageTree]

Hope you enjoy it again

It was really remarkable, even if he is sort of a goof sometimes

 

[painted wolf]

Very cool! I look forward to being able to watch this series. Thanks so much for sharing.

wa:do

 

[Andal]

Unfortunately a good portions of his information is incredibly wrong about Hinduism and Buddhism but none the less here is the installment for South Asia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZYgpYM2DYs

 

[SageTree]

Very cool! I look forward to being able to watch this series. Thanks so much for sharing.

wa:do

Thanks hope you enjoy them. :namaste

Unfortunately a good portions of his information is incredibly wrong about Hinduism and Buddhism but none the less here is the installment for South Asia

Yes, there is no doubt he doesn't have perfect knowledge in many of these installments and feel that some of his judgements are based on misconceptions that he then passes onto the viewer. This was my biggest gripe about the series.

The complete series is up there, but thanks for reposting the link since IDK what happened to the arrangement of the videos above?

 

[Madhuri]

Wow thanks, I'll definitely watch that.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Thanks for the links. This looks very interesting. I'll have to check it out when I have time.

 

[Breathe]

Thanks for the links, SageTree. Enjoyed watching it when it was on, even though he definitely made more than his fair share of mistakes with regards to Buddhism and Hinduism, so I wonder how many he made with some of the other, smaller religions...

 

[Andal]

Thanks for the links, SageTree. Enjoyed watching it when it was on, even though he definitely made more than his fair share of mistakes with regards to Buddhism and Hinduism, so I wonder how many he made with some of the other, smaller religions...

I wondered this myself. I enjoyed it but given the mistakes I knew he made, it made me wonder about the small religions I didn't know much about. Plus he seems to be confused about his own religious tradition. In some spots he refers to himself as an Anglican but then in others talks about Luther as the founder of his faith.... Reformation style Christianity had some influence but I'm fairly certain Luther did not found the Church of England....

 

[SageTree]

I believe it was more of a nod to Protestantism, than the CofE.

While there are some errors on his part, I'd hope that most people fact check and look up things that they have questions about and don't take this all as gospel truth.
My hope was more of an introduction to faiths people don't know about, more than to say this is the be all end all facts about them.

Some things I think is funny how he isn't 'ok' with participating in Pagan, capital 'P', ritual, yet he's marveled at times by other earth based traditions that I'd call pagan, like Native American spirituality. While it's not Pagan with a capital 'P', In my own experience many of these 'kinds' of paths fits the more universal bill of what pagan means to me.

 

[Flankerl]

Uh first of all i have to say that its very fascinating.
Then i have to say iam not finished with the whole documentary. But after watching the part about judaism in the middle east i just have to write something of my chest.

The eastern asian religions are very very fascinating and it was really a pleasure to watch.
Also how "pagan" worship combines with christianity and islam in australasia and the pacific is also interesting. And also really sad that the aboriginal religion is just gone.

Africa... well it was different. And the eastern orthodox church of ethopia was really the highlight.


But now to what i just saw. Ok so he spend quite some time to show the viewers how different religions in asia and africa work and then he comes to judaism.
I expected more. I didnt expect that the viewers would understand everything about judaism after watching it but... at least something.

So at first he's at the western wall. Writes something down and sticks it in a crack at the wall. Thats all we learned about it. Ok.

Then he visits the great synagogue in jerusalem during purim. We learn that there was some bad guy who wanted to kill the jews and that there was some girl who saved them. We also see drunk people who get drunk because its ok on purim. Ok.

Then a switch to the haredi in Mea Shearim where we learn.... that haredi jews dance at purim. Ok.

And then we switch into a settlement where we learn that god has given the land to the children of israel/jews and that the rabbi has a bar mitzwa coming up.



Thats what we learned about judaism. Nothing at all. Nothing about the torah, the talmud, the customs.... nothing.


And now we switch to the palestinians and i already know how that will turn out.

 

[SageTree]

I'm sorry that you didn't feel it accurately represented Judaism.
I personally think he glazed over quite a few 'more known' traditions from around the world and got more in depth with those I knew little or nothing about. And don't entirely agree that he skipped over Judaism more than he did on some other shows.
I did think his going on about the drinking at Purim was a little out of line.
Something I DID enjoy learning, or getting a taste of was Samaritan Judaism and where it's roots came from.
This is something I myself only vaguely started reading about so was glad to see it even mentioned.

This guy seems to be doing the best he can with the mind that he has, which sometimes doesn't seem like much!

For all the stuff he left out of Judaism, I feel he perhaps heaped that time slot to poke fun at Christians in Jerusalem, which I also thought wasn't exactly tasteful.

I hope that you continue to check these out and that as he covers more faiths, that you'll maybe see that he skips more than just a little in some others faiths too.

It's fair to guess that since you're familiar with Judaism, another who is more familiar with another tradition might say the exact same thing... actually, I think it was mentioned up the page.

I agree wholeheartedly that he missed some key ideas in his presentation. But then... I'm not sure it's meant to be comprehensive, but rather just snap shots. IMO, it's fodder for further reading.

:namaste
SageTree

 

[Flankerl]

Well as i already wrote i wasnt expecting him to cover 3500 years of judaism and how it evolved etc. In no way i was expecting this as one faith coveres only ~8 minutes.

But every religion he talked about and experienced you got some insights into the religion. About the vague core beliefs of the religion like he did with taoism/daoism or buddhism.

No short conversation with a rabbi about at least some small principles of judaism. And i dont count that settler "rabbi" as a authority. He was only interested talking about his belief as a settler.

I dont know perhaps its because he thought everyone who watched it could recite the whole exodus story for himself so it didnt seem important enough.


If i didnt know better i would now think that judaism is about some wall, in some land with drunk people who also dance.



I think i learned more about the other religions.





PS: i personally dont consider samaritans as really jewish.

 

[SageTree]

I understand what you are saying, although I don't have anything else to add right now.
You're probably right about the 'assumed knowledge', and feel he did this with other Ones as well.

It'd be interesting to hear more from other folks on how well/not well, their Tradition was represented.

For people like myself who didn't or don't know a lot about Samaritanism:

Follow the link for more information.....

Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by those returning from exile.

And my apologies for referring to it as Samaritan Judaism, that adds my opinion to the matter, and perhaps isn't an entirely accurate wording.

:namaste
SageTree

 

[Flankerl]

And my apologies for referring to it as Samaritan Judaism, that adds my opinion to the matter, and perhaps isn't an entirely accurate wording.

You dont have to apologise for that. I know some jews who see them as a jewish sect. And i think some rabbis agree with them.


Iam at episode 6 on the indian subcontinent and i already learned a bit about hinduism. It feels like his whole approach is different... dont know how to explain it.


Dont want to badmouth the documentary. After all its a wonderful idea.

 

[Andal]

Don't feel bad Flankerl, he missed the mark so many times in this documentary it was amazing. When he was in Russia he talked about the Russian Orthodox Church being forced out by the Communists but he never talks about what makes Orthodoxy different from other Christianities.

When in Africa and attending the Voodoo Church he never mentions the history of Yiruba and Voodoo religions and what the role of the Gods are. Instead he focused on the dead animals and exhibited no understanding of the actual cultural significance of it. He just got creeped out and left.

When he was in India (this was mind boggling) he was speaking with a Nepalese Buddhist monk and I don't know if they had a bad translator or if he has some agenda here but Peter kept talking about the Buddhist goal of purifying karma and meditating to be reunited with God... There is no God in Buddhism. There are buddhas, bodhisattvas, tathagatagarba, and devas but no God with a capital "g".

Then Hinduism was a disaster for him. He kept saying Hinduism rose in response to Buddhism so Buddhism was there first. This is completely wrong. Buddhism arose as a response to brahminic Hinduism. And it just goes on and on from there.

I would caution anyone watching these documentaries to enjoy them but not take them as the complete truth. On the up side he omitted inportant info about your religion. My religion was completely misrepresented.

Aum Hari Aum!

 

[SageTree]

Oh YEA! I totally forgot about that Buddhism before Hinduism remark... I was just like......... what?!
That was utterly shocking.
I tend to gather my information on the basis for comparison, not at face value, so I too would add a word of caution and to recommend doing some further homework on the findings he presents, because he didn't exactly uncover the entire experience.

It's still good for what it is, an intro to a general public that often knows nothing of other religions, but here at RF we're obviously not exactly so neglectful of varying paths.

Thanks for your input in critique. :namaste

 

[Flankerl]

I've finished watching it. Oh my he showed some weird stuff especially in the americas.

But yes a few remarks were very weird. I can understand that he mixed up hinduism and buddhism in terms what is the older religion.
But he claimed that Luther was the founder of his faith. Iam no expert on christianity but i know that anglicanism has nothing to do with protestantism or even reformism. I think anglicanism is even closer to catholicism.


And at last there was europe and i was a bit surpised there was judaism. Again. So perhaps not 80 faiths... ah well.
But iam still not happy about it. Ok ok we learned that there are tefillin and that on shabbat jews have a special service and eat together.
But the rest was just about the shoah/holocaust... why? And he even claimed that he feels guilty.
An english anglican (not even protestant) vican who was born in 1957 feels guilty about the shoah/holocaust.
That is just plain stupid.


Perhaps i was expecting to much.
But because of it i remembered an old police education video.

[youtube]18YmbFNZLVI[/youtube]
YouTube - ‪Gaining A Better Understanding of Judaism Educational Video‬‏


Though its not entirely correct its still far better than what we saw in the documentary.


Even though it was interesting.

 

[SageTree]

Thanks again for your comments.

Anglicanism isn't Catholic and It's not exactly Protestant either... technically the theology is called 'Via Media' or 'the Middle Way', which aims to bring the best of both worlds you could say. Although many Anglicans identify with the Protestant roots (hence the Martin Luther reference) as there are one that identify with their Catholic roots. In the same order it's referred to as 'Low and High' Anglicanism. I hope that makes more sense. At least that is where I feel the reference is coming from. It's distinct, but it's also attached at the hip. Anglicans did however incorporate some more Eastern Orthodox theology as well. So it's in the Middle of a triangle so to speak.

I'm sorry that you aren't satisfied with what all was said by him, and I thank you for you addition in information, that was the BEST thing to do.

As for feeling guilty about the Holocaust.... surely it must feel similar to how some Americans view the Slavery and Native genocide in their past even though they weren't there.

Over all I'd say it's not original to feel bad when you know another has or is suffering. I don't quite remember that part, and am not sure if that is the light he was talking about it in.

Perhaps his wording for 'guilty' is his yearning to want to help 'fix' the pain, expressed in words that didn't exactly capture his meaning?

While guilty isn't the word I would have chosen, I don't feel it's 'stupid' for me to feel bad, which is an understandment, about the Holocaust. Do you?