Around the World in 80 Faiths

Pete travels to Australasia to find out how tribal faiths have survived into the 21st century. He goes into the Australian outback in search of the meaning of aboriginal dreaming, to Indonesia for the elaborate funeral of a woman who died 20 years ago; to Sydney to witness the survival of ancient persecuted faiths like the Iraqi Mandeans and witchcraft, and to the remote volcanic islands of Vanuatu in the Pacific ring of fire to unravel the mystery of the cargo cult. « read less

Pete Owen Jones presents the definitive guide to faith on earth, with 80 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. Pete continues his year-long religious odyssey with a gruelling journey exploring the spiritual traditions of Africa. He sets off hoping to get a glimpse of man's first experience of the divine. His journey begins with the ancient practice of voodoo in Benin, where he is confronted with rites that contradict his own deeply held religious convictions. He is forced to decide whether he should even take part. Later, he travels to Botswana to meet the San Bushmen, inheritors of the earliest religious faith on earth. In South Africa, he discovers surprising new developments in religious belief when he meets the members of the 12th Apostolic Church and is stunned to find Afrikaners who believe the world is about to come to an end. In Ethiopia, he finds a group of one of the world's youngest religions - Rastafarians who have set up a Utopian community in this harsh and unforgiving land. His journey reaches its emotional conclusion in the highlands of northern Ethiopia. « read less

Pete Owen Jones's adventures continue as he embarks on the American leg of his religious odyssey to find out why, when it comes to ritual, anything goes. Pete discovers a dangerous side to the Bible Belt when he gets too close to the serpent handlers in the Appalachian mountains, before taking his seat at a table-tipping seance. He continues to challenge his own faith when he comes face to face with a miracle-working evangelist and a boy preacher, before witnessing gay rites in California. In Utah, he visits the holy city of Mormonism and ventures into the wilderness to seek out religious outlaws who take many wives. Pete goes native in a traditional Navajo sweat lodge and visits a sect where mummification is alive and well. His journey across the most religiously diverse country in the world reaches an explosive climax in Nevada when he joins 50 thousand revellers to witness the ceremonial burning of a man. « read less

Pete Owen Jones's exploration of world faiths takes a bizarre turn in Latin America. He smokes cigars with Saint Death in Mexico, ventures deep into a Bolivian mine to meet a terrifying god of the underworld, and takes a mind-expanding natural hallucinogen with a New Age community in the forests of Brazil. He also discovers how the centuries-old dominance of the Catholic Church is being challenged by a huge explosion of new religions and the re-emergence of dormant practices from the past. But his search to understand the diverse spiritualities of the New World proves to be a testing experience. Pete encounters the radical methods of an influential Pentecostal preacher in one of Rio de Janeiro's most notorious prisons, and has to hold his nerve when the minister tries to exorcise Pete's addiction to nicotine. In Brasilia he witnesses the space-age pageantry of a UFO-worshipping community, where a mediumistic reading gets out of control and Pete has to deal with a dark and frightening presence from the spirit world. « read less