The Glory and the Power: Fundamentalism Observed is based on The Fundamentalism Project, a five-year study of worldwide fundamentalism and its rise. The Fundamentalism Project, conducted by a team of international scholars, is sponsored by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAAS) which received a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Glory and the Power is "so comprehensive and complex that it could only be achieved with many partners, we've assembled some of the best broadcasting organizations and documentary producers in television and radio to bring the subject to life."

-Lewis Freedman, Director of the William Benton Broadcast Project University of Chicago, creator of The Glory and the Power: Fundamentalisms Observed

The William Benton Broadcast Project joined with the BBC to produce and air all three episodes. WETA-TV and WETA-FM, Washington, D.C. acted as the presenting stations in the U.S. The television programs were distributed by PBS; the radio programs by National Public Radio.

The comprehensive, global examination of religious fundamentalisms is narrated by John Hockenberry and is a probing, intimate look at fundamentalists, who they are, what motivates them, what they want and how they intend to get it.

Three one-hour television documentaries and five radio programs (four half-hour documentaries plus a two-hour special discussion programs) explore the rise and impact of fundamentalisms around the world. This multimedia series draws heavily on the scholarship organized for the five-year series of conferences sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and held at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

Television Documentaries

Fighting Back is produced by award-winning filmmaker Bill Jersey who visits Bob Jones University in South Carolina, a high school in California where a battle over teaching creationism divides the school, and a TV studio from which fundamentalists telecast their calls to action nationally. It features Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry and born-again Watergate conspirator Charles Colson.

This is Our Land focuses on Israel's Gush Emunim ("The bloc of the faithful") radical religious Jews who are spearheading the settlement of the West Bank of Israel. Among those interviewed by producer Jan Treays is Daniella Weiss, a leading Gush Emunim

Remaking the World is produced by Steven York and profiles activist Muslims in Egypt, who believe their ailing society can be cured by a return to the Islamic values of ages past. Adil Hussein, editor of Egypt's leading opposition newspaper is featured. His paper speaks for the Muslim Brotherhood, the technically illegal but fast-expanding political movement which advocates a government based on Islamic law.

Radio

Four uniquely produced half-hour documentaries are narrated by Alex Chadwick. A fifth program, a two-hour discussion, hosted by John Hockenberry, ties together the themes in the television and radio series.

Turning Point (Program #1) Religious leaders of the Christian Right saw the 1980 March on Washington as a turning point. To document what has happened since, this program goes to fundamentalist churches and to the homes of dedicated believers, providing a riveting portrait of intense belief and a growing activism. Produced by Camilla Carroll and Char Woods.

Guatemala (Program #2) Roman Catholicism, the dominant religion of Central and South America for 500 years, is facing stiff competition from evangelical Protestant religions, in particular Pentecostalism. The program goes to Guatemala to examine why people are turning away from traditional faith. Produced by Bebe Crouse.

The Swing of the Pendulum (Program #3) examines Islamic fundamentalism which is sweeping the Middle East. Some experts predict a solid bloc of Islamist countries could emerge, but Egyptians are working first to transform themselves and their own society. Produced by Claudia Hampston Daly.

Who is a Sikh (Program #4) For nearly a decade the term Sikh has been treated as synonymous with the words "militant" and "fundamentalist." However, scholars, journalists, political and religious leaders from Delhi to the Punjab reveal a more fascinating religious complexity among Sikhs than has been described in the US media. Produced by Frederick de Sam Lazaro.

An International Forum on Fundamentalisms (Program #5) The television and radio programming culminates in a two-hour radio special hosted by John Hockenberry. In the special - taped before a live audience at The University of Chicago's Court Theatre - audience and experts in the study of fundamentalisms explore such questions as: Why this tide? Why now? How will our lives and our world be changed by fundamentalism? Produced by Tom Voegeli and Char Woods.