2000 Years of Christianity, Episode 10: Altar of Reason  (2002)

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2000 Years of Christianity, Episode 10: Altar of Reason

The documentary series 2000 Years of Christianity provides an archaeological assessment of Christian thought as it evolved over the course of two millennia. Episode 10: Altar of Reason opens by entering the era of Descartes, to observe the new philosophies that swept Europe and dramatically transformed and reconstructed modes of thought, forcing individuals to re-envision the universe (in the deistic sense) as a gigantic mechanism, capable of being dominated and controlled, and repositing the church as a mere manipulative instrument of moral and ethical control. The program then travels to 1789, where the long-suppressed Third Estate emerged, the French Revolution rewrote the long-established rules of the Middle Ages, the papacy staked a new claim to power at the dawn of the 19th century, church properties were relinquished, and -- as the 19th century reached its halfway point, Christians began lobbying for individual liberties. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide