The BBC is placing Christianity at the heart of primetime entertainment for the first time, with programmes examining faith and spirituality set to replace copycat “lifestyle” shows.

However, the first fruits of the born-again fervour could prove controversial. Rageh Omaar, the former Iraq war correspondent who wrote a book on his experiences as a British Muslim, will conduct a three-part examination of Jesus’s miracles.

Omaar travelled to the Sea of Galilee, looking at the historical and archaeological evidence for events such as the Feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on water and the Resurrection itself.

The series asks if the banquet of loaves and fishes was an act of mass delusion and if the crucified body of Jesus was thrown to dogs in a rubbish dump.

Christian groups are concerned. Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Catholic bishops in Scotland, asked: “Can you imagine the BBC asking a prominent Christian like Cliff Richard to present a critical look at Islam?”

The BBC said that the series was not designed to provoke a Christian backlash. Adam Kemp, the BBC’s head of religious commissioning, said: “It is Rageh’s journey to find out what the miracles reveal about Jesus and who people at the time believed Jesus really was. There are beautiful reconstructions of the miracles.”

The Monastery, another religious programme, followed five laymen on a spiritual journey living by Benedictine rules. It proved a surprise reality hit for BBC Two, spawning a female version set in a convent.

The programming revival will be overseen by Michael Wakelin, a Methodist lay preacher from Macclesfield, and the BBC’s new head of religion and ethics. He will manage a £4 million dramatic reconstruction of the Passion scheduled for Easter 2008. Nigel Stafford-Clark, producer of the award-winning Bleak House, will adapt the story into nightly, soap-style episodes for BBC One.

In another major BBC series, the historian Dr Tristram Hunt will explore the influence of Protestantism on British attitudes to work and leisure. Religious iconography will also play a central role in Simon Schama’s The Power of Art, a BBC Two series this autumn, in which the historian tells the tale behind Caravaggio’s Beheading of Saint John the Baptist.

The BBC has said that it is committed to presenting all faiths equally. Last year Omaar presented his Islamic History of Europe and a new BBC series will examine the impact of the British Empire on the development of Islam.

The Miracles of Jesus begins on BBC One on July 30.

QUESTIONS, BUT NO EASY ANSWERS

The Resurrection

Is it possible that the whole thing was based on a mistake? Did the women go to the wrong tomb? Did the disciples imagine the whole thing? Surely the easiest solution would be to take the (crucified) bodies down and throw them on the garbage dump, to be dealt with by the dogs and birds.

The Feeding of the 5,000

The key element here is the belief of the crowd that a miracle had taken place. They were convinced that from such meagre rations Jesus had fed everyone, and left them all satisfied. It sounds like a kind of miraculous sleight of hand.

The Stilling of the Storm

Perhaps the storm was about to subside anyway, and the “miracle” may have been little more than good timing. But in order to understand the miracle as a sign, we need to focus on the meaning of the event, rather than the event itself. That meaning was what left the disciples awestruck. It was more than shocking, it was scandalous.

• Extracts from The Miracles of Jesus by Michael Symmons Roberts, the official book of the BBC One series.

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