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Living with the Gods Episodes

  1.

    Living with Each Other

    Neil MacGregor concludes his series on how shared beliefs have shaped societies.

  2. The Search for a State

    The attempts of some faiths to establish a state of their own

  3. Turning the Screw

    A focus on those faiths seen as a threat to the state

  4. Living with No Gods

    Neil MacGregor focuses on societies which aimed to live without religious beliefs

  5. Ruling with the Gods

    The relationship between gods and the earthly rulers with a heavenly mandate

  6. Gods Living Together

    How faiths co-exist in India

  7. Global Gods, Local Needs

    How gods can reach new communities and faiths adapts

  8. The Other Side of the Leaf

    The societies who believe that they share the landscape with invisible co-inhabitants

  9. Living with One God

    How one god became central to worship in ancient Babylon and Egypt

  10. Living with Many Gods

    The role and expression of beliefs with a focus on societies living with many gods

  11. Rejecting the Image

    Focussing on the word: a yad is used to follow the text during readings from the Torah

  12. Change Your Life

    Examining images of the crucifixion of Christ and a serene figure of Buddha

  13. The Making of Meaning

    How do we begin to understand the original intention of ancient art?

  14. Replicating the Divine

    The making of divine images such as Russian Orthodox icons and the Hindu goddess Durga

  15. The Protectoresses

    Shared beliefs around Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico and the goddess Artemis of Ephesus

  16. Festivals

    Festivals and their role in shaping a communal identity

  17. To Be a Pilgrim

    Pilgrimage and its role in Christianity, Buddhism and Islam

  18. Holy Killing

    This Aztec knife, dating from around 1500, had a brutal purpose - human sacrifice

  19. Gifts to the Gods

    Why offerings to Gods became part of cultural practice for the Muisca population

  20. The House of God

    The temple designed and formed in Mesopotamia about 4000 years ago to be a house of god

  21. The Power of Song

    Kirchenpelz was not just 'Sunday Best' it showed your allegiance to the Lutheran Church

  22. Lines of Communication

    Prayer is both a highly individualized activity and a profoundly communal act

  23. Becoming an Adult

    Human rites of passage, that mark the transition from childhood to adulthood

  24. Mother and Child

    How societies and communities seek to protect the newly-born and their mothers

  25. Living with the Dead

    Deceased ancestors had great wisdom and could be called upon to help key decision-makers

  26. Dependence or Dominion?

    How nature and seasonal change shaped shared beliefs from the Yupik people to Egyptians

  27. Here Comes the Sun

    The importance of the sun, from the very earliest days of humanity

  28. Water of Life and Death

    How water became an essential part of religious practise in Christianity, Islam, Judaism

  29. Fire and State

    Many societies have seen the mesmerizing phenomenon of fire as a symbol of the divine

  30. The Beginnings of Belief

    Through the ancient Lion Man sculpture Neil MacGregor explores the role of shared beliefs