Churches: How to Read Them — Season 1
6 Episodes · Premiered September 1, 2010 · Ended October 6, 2010
Episodes
Richard Taylor visits Britain's early medieval churches to find out why the Anglo-Saxons and Normans continued to fill their sacred buildings with pagan images.
Richard Taylor uncovers evidence that shows how and why our parish churches came to play such a crucial role in the everyday life of the Middle Ages.
Richard Taylor shows how churches were designed to give medieval people a way to escape death, with their Judgement scenes, cadaver tombs and crucifixion depictions.
Richard Taylor tries to understand the intense medieval devotion to the Virgin Mary and how this fuelled the anger of the Reformation that followed.
Richard Taylor finds that churches from the Age of Enlightenment reflect the intellectual excitement, vigour and potential for conflict of a turbulent time.
Richard Taylor discovers how medieval imagery made a surprise return to Victorian places of worship and how WWI brought back the commemoration of the dead.