How can an agnostic be converted into a Christian? Jon Ronson films a group at the well-known Alpha Course at St Aldate’s church in Oxford to find out the secret of this course’s apparent power to create new believers in ‘How to Find God’, the first episode of a new series of religious-themed documentaries on Channel 4, Revelations.
Ronson spends the duration of the course with one of the small ‘table’ groups and encounters some interesting characters including a fregan and a budding comedian, all of whom have some questions about the whole God issue – and their questions grow even more when they hear about a weekend away which might involve speaking in tongues.
It’s a surprisingly gentle and open film which allows the participants and group leaders to be honest and frank – but if the whole ‘talking about God’ thing sounds a bit dull, don’t be put off. This is very much a human interest doc with a really interesting mix of characters and lots of subtle touches of humour.
Also ( personal plug), I am doing some PhD research (unconnected to LC) into this series and its ilk and if you do watch the programme I’d be very grateful if you can fill in a short anonymous survey afterwards, or post your thoughts on this or any other docs in the series on Twitter using the hashtag #c4rev. Cheers.
