Living with the Gods

Living with the Gods episodes:

• 12.01.2017

  Living with Each Other

  Neil MacGregor concludes his series about shared beliefs. He began with the Lion Man, an object created 40,000 years ago, and now reflects on the present, on the future and on hope Producer Paul Kobrak The series is produced...

  
• 11.30.2017

  The Search for a State

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on shared beliefs with a look at the attempts of some faiths to establish a state of their own. An over-printed coin from 2nd century Jerusalem tells of the failed attempt of Shimon bar Kokhba...

  
• 11.29.2017

  Turning the Screw

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on shared beliefs with a focus on those faiths seen as a threat to the state. A plain board, to be found on a 17th-century Japanese roadside, offers generous rewards to anyone who informs on...

  
• 11.28.2017

  Living with No Gods

  Neil MacGregor focuses on societies which aimed to live without religious beliefs. Neil examines a revolutionary clock, from around 1795, created in the wake of the French Revolution, and designed to mark a new way of living: in an...

  
• 11.27.2017

  Ruling with the Gods

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on shared beliefs with a focus on earthly rulers and the gods. Queens and kings may be priests of the gods, or their representatives. They may be incarnations - or even gods themselves. Or...

  
• 11.24.2017

  Gods Living Together

  Neil MacGregor continues his series about the expression of shared beliefs with a focus on how faiths co-exist in India. Producer Paul Kobrak Produced in partnership with the British Museum Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

  
• 11.23.2017

  Global Gods, Local Needs

  Neil MacGregor continues his series about the expression of shared beliefs with a focus on gods can reach new communities, and how those communities can then adapt and change the faiths. Producer Paul Kobrak Produced in partnership with the...

  
• 11.22.2017

  The Other Side of the Leaf

  Neil MacGregor continues his series about the expression of shared beliefs with a focus on societies who believe that they share the landscape with co-inhabitants who are not visible but are present. Such belief systems can be found in places...

  
• 11.21.2017

  Living with One God

  Neil MacGregor's series on the role and expression of beliefs continues with a focus on societies and faiths with a single god. Using objects from both ancient Babylon and ancient Egypt, Neil examines how one god could become central...

  
• 11.20.2017

  Living with Many Gods

  Neil MacGregor's series on the role and expression of beliefs continues with a focus on societies living with many gods. In the mid-1840s, a Roman earthenware jar was dug from the earth near Felmingham Hall in Norfolk. Inside, excavators...

  
• 11.16.2017

  Rejecting the Image

  Neil MacGregor's series on the role and expression of beliefs continues with a reflection on faiths which focus on the word rather than the image. A striking cobalt blue mosque lamp, from around 1570, shows an Islamic way of...

  
• 11.16.2017

  Change Your Life

  Neil MacGregor continues his series about the expression of shared beliefs with a focus on images which seek to change the viewer's behaviour. A small coloured wood-cut, created in the Netherlands around 1500, offers a particularly gruesome rendering of...

  
• 11.15.2017

  The Making of Meaning

  Neil MacGregor continues his series about the expression of shared beliefs with a focus on how we come to comprehend sacred images. Our understanding of the rock art created by the San people of southern Africa over many centuries...

  
• 11.14.2017

  Replicating the Divine

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs with a focus on the making of divine images. For the painter of a Russian religious icon, the paramount purpose is the continuation of a tradition, in which...

  
• 11.13.2017

  The Protectoresses

  Neil MacGregor's series on the role and expression of beliefs continues this week with a focus on images. In Mexico, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe came not from the hand of an artist, but was directly given...

  
• 11.10.2017

  Festivals

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time, and focuses on festivals, and their role in shaping a communal identity. Producer Paul Kobrak Produced in partnership with the British...

  
• 11.09.2017

  To Be a Pilgrim

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time, and focuses on pilgrimage, and its role in Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. Producer Paul Kobrak Produced in partnership with the...

  
• 11.08.2017

  Holy Killing

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time, and focuses on sacrifice.. Displayed in the British Museum is a finely-crafted Aztec knife, dating from around 1500, with a...

  
• 11.07.2017

  Gifts to the Gods

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time, and focuses on offerings. High in the Andes in Colombia, the indigenous Muisca population consigned highly-wrought gold figurines to the...

  
• 11.06.2017

  The House of God

  Neil MacGregor's series on the role and expression of beliefs continues with a focus on the creation of sacred spaces, built for encountering or engaging with the divine. Stone tablets in the British Museum detail how a temple was designed...

  
• 11.03.2017

  The Power of Song

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time. He focuses on a Kirchenpelz or 'church fur' - a sheepskin coat made in the late 19th century in Transylvania, now...

  
• 11.02.2017

  Lines of Communication

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time. He focuses on prayer, reflecting on how this most highly individualized of activities is also a profoundly communal act, with...

  
• 11.01.2017

  Becoming an Adult

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time. He focuses on rites of passage, marking the transition from childhood to adulthood, including a lock of bound hair, from...

  
• 10.31.2017

  Mother and Child

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time. He focuses on how societies and communities seek to protect the newly-born and their mothers, including the role of St...

  
• 10.30.2017

  Living with the Dead

  Neil MacGregor's series on the role and expression of beliefs continues with a reflection on our relationship with the dead. In the British Museum, he focuses on mummy bundles from Peru, skeletons wrapped in textiles made of llama wool...

  
• 10.27.2017

  Dependence or Dominion?

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time. He focuses on the natural world and seasonal change: the Yupik people of Alaska depend on the seal, and ancient Egyptians...

  
• 10.26.2017

  Here Comes the Sun

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world, and focuses on light. He experiences the sunrise whilst inside the monumental stone passage tomb at Newgrange, Ireland, a structure older than Stonehenge...

  
• 10.26.2017

  Water of Life and Death

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time, and focuses on water, including a visit to the Ganges at Varanasi, India. In Islam, Christianity and Judaism, water is an...

  
• 10.25.2017

  Water of Life and Death

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time, and focuses on water, including a visit to the Ganges at Varanasi, India. In Islam, Christianity and Judaism, water is...

  
• 10.24.2017

  Fire and State

  Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time. Many societies have seen the mesmerizing phenomenon of fire as a symbol of the divine. Neil MacGregor focuses on sacred...

  
• 10.23.2017

  The Beginnings of Belief

  Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum, begins this series about the role and expression of shared beliefs with the Lion Man, a small ivory sculpture which is about 40 000 years old. The figure has a human body...