Documentary series telling the sweeping and dramatic history of religion in America as it has played out in public life. The opening programme explores the origins of America's unique religious landscape and how the New World challenged the faiths the first European settlers brought with them.
This second episode considers the beginnings of America's experiment in religious liberty, examining how the political alliance between evangelical Baptists and enlightenment figures such as Thomas Jefferson forged a new concept of religious freedom, first in Virginia and ultimately in the Bill of Rights.
How religious belief shaped the origins of the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln's actions during the conflict. As Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders clashed over the question of slavery, both turned to the Bible to argue their cause, with each declaring God was on its side.
Exploring the intellectual and cultural conflicts between traditional religious beliefs and the forces of modernity, which reached a crescendo in the 1925 trial of John Scopes, a Tennessee teacher arrested for teaching evolution.
While the Supreme Court embarked on decisions that required government actions to have a secular purpose, fresh religious energy surged through the nation, fuelling the Cold War fight against `Godless Communism' and driving the civil rights movement which produced leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.
The concluding episode brings the series into the present day, exploring the political aspirations of the religious right, the dynamics of the contemporary religious marketplace, and the re-emergence of a religious voice in the Democratic Party.
Campbell Scott
Narrator
