The World's Greatest Churches

The great churches of Christianity represent some of the world's most stunning masterpieces of architecture and art. These 24 dazzling lectures take on the full scope of this compelling subject, leading you in a detailed guided tour of the churches and cathedrals that one celebrated Christian historian and medievalist considers to be among the most outstanding, memorable, and meaningful in the world. Beginning in the Holy Land, you'll travel the globe to find the jewels of this tradition, visiting not only preeminent churches in Western and Eastern Europe, but also in Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and East Asia. In all, you'll study churches in 19 countries, spanning 5 continents, in a survey encompassing a range from the grandest metropolitan cathedrals - such as the Hagia Sophia, the Cathedral of Siena, the Sagrada FamÕlia, and Chartres Cathedral - to less-known gems such as the stave churches of Norway, the pilgrimage shrines of Latin America, and the mysterious cave churches of Turkish Cappadocia. But artistic stature is only one measure of the significance of the great Christian churches. These lectures unpack the culture and theology of a global faith through its most important and magnificent buildings. You'll discover how, in their essential religious role, these buildings instruct, edify, and inspire the communities that worship in them, using iconography, symbolism, and the language of architecture as ultimate expressions of faith. Join a brilliant historian of Christianity in discovering (or rediscovering) architectural masterworks that rank among the most revered, most beloved, and most iconic buildings of world civilization., ISBN13: 9781629971001 ISBN10: 1629971006 Material Type: dvd