No, I don’t mean me.

My DVD set (among many other things) arrived from Amazon this afternoon. We caught this series when it was broadcast on the BBC last year and it is unimaginably good. It will Barack your world. (I’m bringing it back.)

Diarmaid is an Oxford University theology professor and the son of an English vicar. He grew up Christian, subsequently lost his faith but went on to devote his life to the study of religion.

Usually these kinds of books or shows have a particular axe to grind. Not Diarmaid. It turns out the combination of atheist/son of a vicar is the most sensitive and enlightening and definitely the most riveting.

You know how magic folk have this barely controllable need to learn and debunk all there is to know about Christianity? I used to be one of them so I thought myself fairly well-versed in the whole story. Wrong, wrong, wrong. There is just so much new stuff here. He is an Oxford professor, after all. You’re getting the very pinnacle of global academia, here.

This series doesn’t tiptoe around the origins of these supposedly-divine words and people but it is not in the slightest bit mean-spirited.

For things like this I would usually just say Netflix it but no. You’ll want to watch this a bunch of times. Buy the fucker. You won’t be sorry. It’s awesome.