After Jesus: The First Christians (2006, CNN, prod. Anderson Cooper 360) is a 110 min documentary (with commercials) about the first few centuries after Christ, about the growth of Christianity and about all of the paradoxes it invoked. It was first aired Dec. 22, 2006.
The film traces the early apostles: Peter and Paul, and the stoning of Stephen, and deals with the controversy over whether Gentiles could become Christians without first converting to Judaism.
It then covers the problems of the paradigm: is this a religion of faith and salvation (the four canonical Gospels) or of knowledge and wisdom (the Gnostic gospels, as found in scrolls in the 1940s and almost burned frivolously). What is the relationship of man's mastery of himself and his logical facilities with his experience and his faith? We see that dichotomy in moral and social issues today. The way books get carried forward is covered: writings not accepted simply don't get manually "copied", an idea that bears an interesting contrast when one thinks about the controversies today over the Internet and free entry. Yet, even in that time, ideas could circulate rapidly and become politiclaly destabilizing. The early church would itself become very political, and challenge the authority of Rome.
The earliest Christian society was a socialistic culture, in which property was held in common and family life was very much the "village" concept. It contradicts the competitive, meritocratic culture of today. One was very much his "brother's keeper."
2 comments:
I very much enjoyed the show, and particularly the treatment of the apostles immediately after Jesus's death - what they did, how they came together, how they were persecuted, etc.
I loved this show also and learned many things about the period and how we came to have the Bible that we have.
It certainly makes you think about the courage of our ancestors and what we could face in the future.
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