Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years

I ordered this video set to learn more about the first 1400 years or so and love the John Paul II segment as well. This long running history of Christianity is a great learning tool. It runs about 200 minutes per video but it does give you “scene selection” so you can watch it in segments!

The attempt to cover 2,000 years is to be admired. However, I find some scenes repeated, the background music boring and the general tempo too slow. When compared to other DVDs of historical subjects, such as Islam and the Greeks, this one on Christianity comes second in lacking rhythm and keep one awaken all the time. However, the material is of great interest and illuminating for anyone looking for general information. I suggest a book to accompany the DVD to enrich with details for anyone interested in going further in certain subjects. Specially interesting the celibacy decree of the Catholic Church (in year 1,000) which was never part of the original religion. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed going through the many ups and downs of Christianity, sometimes finding how far its representatives have several times fallen from Jesus words and acts. On the other hand, how exceptional personalities like St. Agustin, St. Ignacio De Loyola, St. Francis of Assisi and Martin Luther have kept Christianity from obsolescence and disbelief.

This is not a critical analysis of any aspects of the Christian faith, it is merely an in-depth look at how Christianity developed through two thousand years. It is not extremely deep, it is not controversial, it is not inflammatory in any way. This one is geared toward a conventional Christian audience and they do a very good job of laying out an awful lot of history - as such, it gives just the basics of most elements, but, there's a whole lot of ground to cover.VERY long series but well worth watching. My only "complaint" if you will is that Ossie Davis's voice overs are so smooth and peaceful (fantastic voice) that I kept nodding off even though I was very interested in the program! I watched these discs forty minutes to an hour at a time, and I had to go back and rewatch a lot of the parts because I kept falling asleep! Not boring, the guy's just got a very soothing effect on you when you've had a long day at work!Highly recommend this set, get it while you can in this affordable double disc set.

One of my favorite TV programs is Criminal Minds. Ask yourself what does Church History and Criminal Minds have to do with each other. Criminal Minds has nothing on the people in the first two thousand years of Church History. Christians have done some of the evilest ugliest things all in the name of Christianity throughout history. There is nothing new under the sun. When you watch this DVD get ready to be surprised!Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years was very accurate and to the point. I brought the DVD because I was taking a Church History class for my Master of Arts. It is long, but so worth watching. I believe that every Christian (especially Christian leaders) should know Church History. I would recommend this DVD to anyone who wants to learn about Church History. Encourager Linda Flagg

We used this for an assignment in Seminary, so I was glad to find a copy on Amazon at an affordable price.

A nice general introduction to Christianity. Gives enough detail about how Christianity developed and the various crises in a digestible manner. There is an attempt to show the positives and negatives, including how the Catholic Church became very conservative in response to industrialization and cultural changes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the Christian churches role (good and bad) in colonization/empire building. Enjoyed the segments specifically on the American Protestant churches (African-American, evangelical, charismatic, etc). You will have enough information to do more research on your own.

Very well done: A good job of packing 2000 years into 6 hours of video. History buffs might say that it's incomplete in some areas, well, of course! There is six hours to hit the highlights of 2000 years. I think it was very well done with good narration, interviews, supplementary archival footage and beautiful videography and beautiful music score.

While I appreciated the vastness of its scope, I thought the DVD omitted the very significant role that women have played in the spread of Christianity, especially Catholic Sisters. For example, while the DVD rightfully portrayed the Jesuits as playing a major role in the Catholic Counter-Reformation, it said nothing about the Ursulines who were doing very novel ministry at the same time, namely, educating GIRLS in many hundreds of schools throughout Europe. (In France alone, there were 350 Ursuline schools at the time of the French Revolution.) I also thought that the DVD portrayed Catholic missionary work too negatively, while portraying Protestant missionary work very positively. Having said this, I found segments of this DVD to be very useful in my teaching of church history.

Excellent. The best documentary on Christianity from an historical standpoint I have ever seen. Little theology and dogma and just as well.

I liked this DVD because it was well researched. Much of the filming was done on location in the Holy Land and other relevant locations, giving an atmospheric touch. It was an unbiased production, reveal;ing the outlook of other religions towards Christianity, and not hesitating in its criticisms (all well deserved) of the Christian Churches, particularly of the Catholic Church. The biggest fault I had with the documentary was that the background music was more foreground at times (like many documentaries), making the commentary less clear. All in all, a good film, to be recommended to anybody interested in the history of religions which influence our culture and politics to this very day.

Anyone who is looking for a guide to acquire knowledge in the history of Christianity could certainly use this as starting point.Concise and not too complex for the novice.