Around the World in 80 Faiths

7.11
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Ratings: 7.11/10 from 47 users.

Around the World in 80 FaithsAnglican vicar Peter Owen-Jones has been given a year's sabbatical to travel the world with a BBC crew to explore different faiths around the world at the beginning of the 21st century.

Pete Owen Jones presents the definitive guide to faith on earth, with eighty rituals across six continents in the space of a year.

The big six world religions are only part of the story. Faith is belief in the sacred, and it is expressed in a rich diversity of rituals, in denominations, sects, cults, tribal faiths and new religious movements.

Pete's mission is to witness and take part in rites rarely filmed before, to take the religious pulse of the planet and to understand the depth of humanity's fascination with the divine.

As an Anglican priest, Pete will be confronting cultures that will challenge his values and prejudices - he will be surprised, even offended, but also enlightened.

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45 Comments / User Reviews

  1. Sujittra Chaturongkul

    I think religion is man's connection to the divine. Without the divine, what is it there that would be left? Where there are more than one religion, man is clothed with different clothings of the divine. In fact, if there is only one divinity, who could have imagined what the divineis.

  2. Asdsadasd

    This documentary would be so much more interesting if white people hadn't conquered the world and turned native peoples to jesus where ever they could. Damn you, Christianity.

  3. Matteo Castellano

    Great documentary but I dont know why everytime there was a killing animal scene he had to freak out. I watched the whole thing though, glad its done, now I can pray.

  4. Momoftwo2012

    so I saw up to 35 faiths I think. Where are the rest???

  5. Elzie Simons

    My roommate really enjoyed this!!! I was so glad i went looking for documentaries today

  6. Gosia Dorabialska

    Peter is a true priest. I have been brought up as a Catholic- haven't been to a church for 25 years... But to listen to Pete, I'd go again! This would be the first time for me to stay awake in a church!!!
    And by the way- what a BEAUTIFUL and FASCINATING documentary!!!!!!
    Thank you, Pete!!!! Gosia

  7. Dardanele

    Best documentary ever made and Peter was not afraid to show his weakness to the world... although they could edit that segment of the documentary where the pentecostal preacher made a big deal about him smoking...and blah blah blah....like he is a saint himself.

  8. Johan Strijdom

    Really strange that an educated priest would present the apocalyptic beliefs of this group of Afrikaners as unique and shocking. This mentality is commonly found amongst fundamentalists, and even some of the best thinkers in the Western tradition thought they could calculate the literal end of the world. Millennarian fantasies are, furthermore, found in many cultures around the world (not only in the Abrahamic / Semitic traditions, of which John the Baptist, Paul and, according to Albert Schweitzer, the historical Jesus himself were prominent examples of such mistaken end-time expectations).

  9. Eysteinn Guðni Guðnason

    I cried when he started talking about the bahá'í faith. Watching so many diverse religions for a few hours and then seeing my own having it's little beautiful segment was just wonderful. I'm now up to the South American part and just can't get enough. Rely looking forward to showing my friends.

  10. E

    i want to say wow- a priest taking a part of a satanic naked ceremony for 2 hours tells you something about his own faith ,, either this priest don't really understand the true monotheism that Jesus tough - other that that this guy is very much open minded and his amazing journey show how much mankind is misguided from the truth. so the question now what is the truth?

  11. Daniel Owens

    In regards to buddhism part I don't think it is really a question of tolerance. If you look at stories of the buddha he never denied the existance of Indian gods, he claimed rather that they did not exist in the capacity that Indians thought they did. I think this can be seen in alot of mahayanist branches, Tibet claims some mongol gods after they had been converted to buddhism.

  12. Kitty_Sea

    Interesting doco, though quite shallow as I suppose it must be to cover all those religions. It was nice to see such a variety of religious beliefs covered, not just the big ones. The bias of the presenter is clearly stated, he is an Anglican priest, so you can easily look past it. He is honest enough to say when he is aware of his personal views affecting his judgement.

    I was disappointed with the Aboriginal segment, it seemed as though he hadn't bothered to ask them what their religion was before he went - he just assumed that all Aboriginals believe in the Dreamtime. There are people who believe, and I would have been interested to see his interview with them, but his conclusion that the religion doesn't exist because he didn't find it was irritating. Also his assumption that all Aboriginal people are the same was a rather sad demonstration of the shallowness of the documentary.

  13. You Do Not See Me

    ONe of the best Docus ever! I Wonder if it is on DVD I will purchase it for sure and play it for everyone I know.

  14. mahonhouse

    i must stop watching I am enthralled but must wait for someone .This is the Best Dicumentary ever made.So far so good I love when he calls his own religion arrogant in their demands on the funeral rituals of the people right before the phillipines bit?I will be rewatching all in a couple of hours anyhow.I know he was speaking of dutch missionaries and the thing about where thee catu hands are situated on them u know the wooden effigies.anyway i know so watch this DOC>

  15. soulfetcher

    nice...........
    -to search is to overcome chaos!

  16. Jack1952

    What amazes me is that no matter where in the world you go; what culture, how large that culture, how isolated, and how ancient, they all seem to have some sort of belief system. There does not seem to be an exception. I've always wondered why that was.

    1. Guest

      polarity...i am me what is not me?
      but that may be wrong:
      I am not me therefore what is not me is me.
      az

    2. Jack1952

      I am that I am?

  17. adilrye

    Great series, wished the Middle East episode was up. Fascinating.

  18. Roberta

    Although I have never been religious, or belonged to any faith, from a very early age I had a personal God I prayed to and asked guidance from. This series was fascinating to me. It reinforced my belief that religion is a group activity and those who try to connect with a God, need a group to do so. Which I find quite odd.

  19. Jack1952

    Its not so much that people do horrible things to one another. Its the realization that we do and trying to not repeat the same things over again. This person cannot undo what has been done. He can only present us with information that compassion, regret, and understanding. It may be that you have a personal agenda or bias that inspires you to respond in this way. Don't blame all imperialist atrocities on this man just because of what he does or where he comes from.

  20. Sajid Hussain

    Where is Middle east episode ?

    1. adilrye

      Yeah...it really ruins the flow of it. Where is it?

    2. Vlatko

      It's missing @Sajid Hussain. I couldn't find it.

  21. SONNYCORBI

    informative, i have only watched a small part so far but am looking forward to watching the rest but for now i have to pause to clean the house, yuk.

  22. TheSatyaYuga

    I'd love to do something similar some day, while no longer religious myself it would be eye opening and enlightening to experience different interpretations of the deep mystery and wonder of our existence.

  23. Mario Silverio

    Great doc.

  24. bulldetector

    Here we go again, the western christian vicar trots the globe comparing diverse cultures to his particular brand of the God idea, as if everything has to come up to his gold standard. However, he did have a moment of clarity when he deprecated his religion's interference with the words how supremely arrogant is that. Say no more.

    1. Jack1952

      No matter who you send, they will have a particular brand of the God idea, even you. Understanding this and then learning from what that person says and how he says it is how we learn about the world about us. Dismissing it out of hand, will only feed our own particular prejudice and does little in bringing the people of the world together.

  25. Woody728

    What happened to the episode about the Middle East? It isn't in the playlist.

  26. roy | roymarvelous.com

    I don't know if there's any point in sending someone closed-minded on an amazing journey like this.

    1. adilrye

      Just because he has his own values doesn't mean he's close minded. He doesn't have abandon everything he believes in just to respect other people. I don't see how he is disrespectful at all. Part of the reason this is so good is because he is a man of a particular religion, and sees these religions in contrast to his own. It's part of the experience. I think people are just making fuss because he explicitly admitted he was an Anglican priest...and to judge him because of that is wrong.

    2. Aristarkos Filokrates

      I suppose it would be a better idea to send someone who automatically calls religious people close minded.. that would be a very open and non-judgemental person.

  27. Muzar

    great docu!

  28. alans

    Kava is not hallucinogenic. It just relaxes the body. He should have tried it.

    1. Jessie Wyatt

      I love kava tea...it is very relaxing.

  29. Guest

    I would like to go on a similar itinerary while paid half of what he was paid and question people about sex and love. Much more interesting and quite possibly closer to spirituality than these folklore stories. I did enjoy this too though.
    I love to see entirely different ways to see the same thing.
    az

  30. Sieben Stern

    i was with this one until he talked to the aboriginals... especially as an anglican i don't see how he can't understand that when you stop on someone's way of life, tradition, with christianity and capitalism, that WOW, their religion and spirituality dies out... :/

    there's just no shame with this guy.

    ok, double with the wiccans. e_e

    1. adilrye

      He had no bad intentions, in fact you'd expect, as a priest he'd be happy with their adoption of his religion, but he was sad in that they lost an old way of life and religion. I thought he was very respectful. And he is only human, obviously he has some reservations when it comes to certain practices that do make him feel uncomfortable.

  31. far

    If you were lucky enough to go on such a journey you would be profoundly enlightened.
    This pompous Anglican priest didnt even pickup a tan!

    1. Jack1952

      I didn't find him that pompous. He even expressed shame over the witch burnings that the church took part in. Could this be an anti Christian bias that moves you to say this? Are you saying that he is pompous because he's Anglican or because of a personality flaw (that has nothing to do with his religion)?

  32. Guest

    28,000,000 Gods in recorded history, the odds ain't good for the "Pascals wager"
    All religion is a brain-washing cult.

  33. adilrye

    This was fascinating. Nice to see how different people view the world; I would love to do a trip like this as well

  34. The Buachaill

    I think people might find the different religious rituals and belief systems introduced quite interesting; perhaps as a way to compare and contrast the more mainstream religions? As you might guess from the title, the documentary glosses over each faith without much depth

  35. farzad farhadi

    insane! sick! bullsh*t!