The Bible: A History

Gerry Adams, politician and supporter of the IRA throughout years of sectarian conflict and the subsequent peace process, investigates the life and death of Jesus Christ, against the backdrop of his own life and career.

Adams describes himself as an 'Irish Catholic who, despite all the let-downs and scandals that... the Church has been embroiled in, remains a member'.

Adams sets out to discover the real, historical Jesus, rather than the version of Jesus he was taught about as a child, and to establish who killed him and why.

Adams explores how Jesus's core message - that of love, forgiveness and advocacy of non-violence - has affected him and other members of his community, both Catholic and Protestant, Republican and Loyalist. Adams examines how these key ethical teachings have impacted upon him and how relevant they have been to him at different times in his life. As someone who has defended the resort to arms by Republicans in Northern Ireland, he reflects on how he reconciles this with the teachings of Jesus.

On route, Adams consults experts, including the leading Irish theologian Father Vincent Twomey, archaeologists and historians in Ireland and Israel.

In the Holy Land he is accompanied by New Testament expert Dr Helen Bond from the University of Edinburgh. Together they visit the key biblical sites which mark Jesus's ministry: his supposed birthplace in Bethlehem - a Palestinian town now surrounded by a massive 'security' wall, which cuts Palestinians off from their land and loved ones. They visit the site on the River Jordan where John the Baptist is reputed to have baptised Jesus, and explore the moment at which Jesus must have realised that his public ministry was bound to lead to his death.

Back in Northern Ireland, Adams meets victims of atrocities on both sides to examine how they have, or have not, managed to apply the lessons of Jesus's teachings in light of their own experiences. He meets Geraldine Finucane, whose husband Pat, Gerry Adams' lawyer, was murdered by Loyalist paramilitaries in 1989, and Alan McBride, whose wife and father-in-law were killed in the Shankill Road IRA bombing in 1993.

Equipped with his new knowledge of Jesus, Adams ends by revealing his personal relationship to Jesus's teachings and how they relate to his own life experiences.