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Living with the Gods

Religion & Ethics

How shared beliefs have shaped societies from the earliest days of humanity

How shared beliefs have shaped societies around the world, from the very earliest days of humanity with Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum.

How shared beliefs have shaped societies around the world, from the very earliest days of humanity with Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum. 

Image: Gold coin, Credit: The Trustees of the British Museum

Living with the Gods: The Power of Song

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A Kirchenpelz or 'church fur'

06/01/2018 GMT

The Power of Song

BBC World Service - Living with the Gods, The Power of Song

Kirchenpelz was not just 'Sunday Best' it showed your allegiance to the Lutheran Church

Kirchenpelz was not just 'Sunday Best' it showed your allegiance to the Lutheran Church and your identity as a Transylvanian Saxon.

Neil MacGregor focuses on a Kirchenpelz or 'church fur' - a sheepskin coat made in the late 19th Century in Transylvania, now part of Romania, for the German-speaking Saxon community there. This was not just 'Sunday Best': to wear this coat was to proclaim in public your allegiance to the Lutheran Church, and your identity as a Transylvanian Saxon. 

He also reflects on the importance and power of communal singing within the Lutheran Church and elsewhere: the German theologian and priest Martin Luther did not invent hymns or congregational singing, but he did transform them, making them central to worship as never before. 

Producer Paul Kobrak

Produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

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