TV ShowEnded

The Long Search

8.0 / 10 · 1 votes

1977

1 season

13 episodes

Documentary

The Long Search was a 1977 BBC documentary television series spanning 13 episodes. Presented by theatre director Ronald Eyre, the series surveyed several major world religions, including Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic Christianity. Other episodes surveyed Theraveda and Zen Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and even the New Age movement. Location filming took place in India, England, Italy, Japan, Israel, Romania, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the United States, Egypt, Indonesia, and South Africa. Scholar of religion Ninian Smart acted as editorial consultant to the show, and also authored a companion book by the same name. The series was re-issued on DVD, and is currently distributed by Ambrose Video.

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Seasons

Ep 1
1.Protestant Spirit USA
19-09-1977
In the 1100 churches of Indianapolis, we see bewildering multiplicity of Protestantism. Churches with the seating and styling of deluxe first-run theaters. Services conducted with...
Ep 2
2.Hinduism: 330 Million Gods
19-09-1977
Traces the Indian religious experience in two highly contrasting locations: the bustling city of Benares where millions come to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges, and the smal...
Ep 3
3.Buddhism: Footprint of the Buddha
19-09-1977
To Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and India to discover the type of Buddhism practiced throughout southeast Asia. Among those we meet are Buddhist monks-including one American, school children...
Ep 4
4.Catholicism: Rome, Leeds and the Desert
19-09-1977
Catholicism, especially since Vatican II, has undergone many changes. In this episode filmed in Rome, Spain and England, we discover the diversity and the unity of the religious ex...
Ep 5
5.Islam: There is no God but God
19-09-1977
It is said in Islam that every child is born Muslim by nature: he has the belief in his heart of one God. Over 400 million people profess Islam, and its numbers are said to be grow...
Ep 6
6.Orthodox Christianity: The Romanian Solution
19-09-1977
The Orthodox churches in Eastern Europe seem to be bound to the Communist states in essentially loveless marriages, except in Rumania. The Rumanian Orthodox Church is still seen as...
Ep 7
7.Judaism: The Chosen People
19-09-1977
What is it that makes a Jew a Jew? In New York, Elie Wiesel, author and survivor of the concentration camps, tries to define it. In London, Nobert Brainin and the Amadeus Quartet c...
Ep 8
8.Religion In Indonesia: The Way of the Ancestors
19-09-1977
There are almost 200 million people scattered across the world who belong to tribal religions that are local, exclusive and frequently animist - i.e., they believe that inanimate o...
Ep 9
9.Buddhism: The Land of the Disappearing Buddha
19-09-1977
If the Buddha of India met the Buddha of Japan, would they recognize each other? To find out, this program talks to the staff in a Tokyo restaurant who keep regular Zen meditation...
Ep 10
10.African Religions: Zulu Zion
19-09-1977
The Zulu Independent Churches in South Africa. When Christian missionaries took the Gospel to Africa they also tried to suppress African religion and subvert African culture with t...
Ep 11
11.Taoism: A Question of Balance
19-09-1977
In our search for Chinese religious experience, we go to Taiwan. A whole pantheon of gods both local and imported from the mainland are worshipped in thousands of Buddhist and Taoi...
Ep 12
12.Alternative Lifestyles in California: West Meets East
19-09-1977
The spiritual impulse of the time steps beyond the boundaries of religious tradition - so wrote Theodore Roszak, spokesman for the counter-culture, who is Ronald Eyre's guide to th...
Ep 13
13.Reflections on the Long Search
19-09-1977
In this episode Ronald Eyre asks himself some questions. It is not a film in which he hands out diplomas to believers of the religion that pleased him best. The search, for him, be...

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