Religion matters deeply to many Americans, shaping their views on numerous controversial issues, including abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, vouchers for parochial school students, and the importance of the faith of presidential candidates. Is it appropriate for religion to influence political discourse and affect public policy? Or is it inappropriate, evidence that America is too religious?

NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Brown moderates a conversation among four religious leaders and experts on the tolerance-or intolerance-of different religions and cultures in America, nine years after the September. 11, 2001, attacks. Origina?

The Old Testament is one of the foundational documents of Western civilization. In this course, viewers will study a selection of the major books of the Old Testament, probing their meaning and relevance. Among these, viewers will explore the prophets, the wisdom literature, and the apocalyptic literature, finding their deeper historical and religious import, as well as their sublime literary treasures.

When contemporary social mores regarding marriage and divorce collide with religious traditions, the results can be messy. We encounter happy polygamist families in Utah, a Hindu matchmaker in Canada, and Israeli women who are challenging the notoriously restrictive Orthodox Jewish divorce laws upheld by their country's powerful and all-male rabbinic courts.

Regional princes and the powerful Catholic Church wield a fast, firm and merciless grip over 16th-century Germany. But when Martin Luther issues a shocking challenge to their authority, the people declare him their new leader - and hero. Even when threatened with violent death, Luther refused to back down, sparking a bloody religious revolution that shakes the entire continent to its core.

Atonement, penance, and absolution are beliefs that reside at the core of the world's major religions. Have the practices of contrition and restitution become relics of the past, or are they still viable today as opportunities for spiritual cleansing, healing, and rebirth? In this program, The God Squad's Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman; Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina, of the Organization for Islamic Learning; Sister Helen Prejean, author...

How could Bud Welch, whose daughter died in the Oklahoma City bombing, forgive Timothy McVeigh? How did the Reverend Walter Everett move beyond his desire for revenge against the man who murdered his son? In this program, these and other remarkable individuals-people who in picking up the pieces of their shattered lives have triumphed over hate-share the details of their long, painful, and deeply personal journeys from shock and the desire for retribution...

Melvyn Bragg explores the dramatic story of William Tyndale and his mission to translate The Bible into English. Bragg reveals the story of a man whose life and legacy have been hidden from history, but whose impact on Christianity in Britain and on the English language endures today. His radical translation of The Bible into English made him a profound threat to the authority of the church and state, and set him on a fateful collision course with...

This two-hour documentary captures the amazing life and times of our nation's forgotten founding father: Alexander Hamilton.

Melvyn Bragg sets out to unravel the many questions surrounding one of The Bible's most enigmatic and controversial figures. In the gospel accounts, Mary Magdalene plays a central role in the Easter story. She is there at the cross when Jesus is crucified and she is the key witness to the resurrection. So why do so many people believe that Mary Magdalene was the seductive prostitute redeemed by Christ, despite there being no reference to it in The...