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Is a large swathe of Christianity out of step with the modern world? As society in general becomes more liberal, the Church seems more entrenched. This fascinating series explores how the religion's complex, explosive and often divisive ideas about sex, marriage and gender have their roots in an extraordinary story that began 2,000 years ago. From Mormons, Methodists and missionaries to the witch-hunts of the 16th century, the drag queens of 18th century London and the sexual revolution of the 1960s, it reveals how Christian views on sex and gender have never been fixed - they are in flux and they have been so right from the start. Even-handed, and without strident proclamation or condemnation, Sex and the West seeks to add historical context and knowledge to what is an increasingly fractured but relevant debate.

In the first part of a major three-part series, the eminent theological historian Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch explores how Christianity has shaped western attitudes to sex, gender and sexuality throughout history.

Travelling from Israel to Greece, Italy and Ireland, he begins by showing how the early Christians transformed sex from a biological necessity into a vice, from a pleasure into a sin. Even though Jesus Christ said very little about sex, Christianity soon promoted celibacy as the Christian ideal, turned sex into something dangerous and made even marriage second-best.