Episodes

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. Karl Barth (1886 - 1968) rejected the liberal theology of his time which, he argued, used the Bible and religion to help humans understand themselves rather than prepare them to open themselves to divine revelation. Barth's aim was to put God and especially Christ at the centre of Christianity. He was alarmed by what he saw as the dangers in a natural theology where God might be found in a rainbow or an opera by Wagner; for if you were open to finding God in German culture, you could also be open to accepting Hitler as God’s gift as many Germans did. Barth openly refused to accept Hitler's role in the Church in the 1930s on these theological grounds as well as moral, for which he was forced to leave Germany for his native Switzerland.

    With

    Stephen PlantDean and Runcie Fellow at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge

    Christiane TietzProfessor for Systematic Theology at the University of Zurich

    And

    Tom GreggsMarischal Professor of Divinity at the University of Aberdeen

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

    Reading list:

    Karl Barth, God Here and Now (Routledge, 2003)

    Karl Barth (trans. G. T. Thomson), Dogmatics in Outline (SCM Press, 1966)

    Eberhard Busch (trans. John Bowden), Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts (Grand Rapids, 1994)

    George Hunsinger, How to Read Karl Barth: The Shape of His Theology (Oxford University Press, 1993)

    Joseph L. Mangina, Karl Barth: Theologian of Christian Witness (Routledge, 2004)

    Paul T. Nimmo, Karl Barth: A Guide for the Perplexed (Bloomsbury, 2013)

    Christiane Tietz, Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2021)

    John Webster, Karl Barth: Outstanding Christian Thinkers (Continuum, 2004)

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epic which is regarded as one of the greatest works of world literature. Its importance in Indian culture has been compared to that of the Iliad and Odyssey in the West, and it’s still seen as a sacred text by Hindus today.

    Written in Sanskrit, it tells the story of the legendary prince and princess Rama and Sita, and the many challenges, misfortunes and choices that they face. About 24,000 verses long, the Ramayana is also one of the longest ancient epics. It’s a text that’s been hugely influential and it continues to be popular in India and elsewhere in Asia. With

    Jessica Frazier Lecturer in the Study of Religion at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

    Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University

    and

    Naomi AppletonSenior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Edinburgh

    The image above shows Rama, Sita, Hanuman, Lakshmana and devotees, from the Shree Jalaram Prarthana Mandal, Leicester.

    Producer Luke Mulhall

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  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Donne (1573-1631), known now as one of England’s finest poets of love and notable in his own time as an astonishing preacher. He was born a Catholic in a Protestant country and, when he married Anne More without her father's knowledge, Donne lost his job in the government circle and fell into a poverty that only ended once he became a priest in the Church of England. As Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, his sermons were celebrated, perhaps none more than his final one in 1631 when he was plainly in his dying days, as if preaching at his own funeral.

    The image above is from a miniature in the Royal Collection and was painted in 1616 by Isaac Oliver (1565-1617)

    With

    Mary Ann LundAssociate Professor in Renaissance English Literature at the University of Leicester

    Sue WisemanProfessor of Seventeenth Century Literature at Birkbeck, University of London

    And

    Hugh AdlingtonProfessor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the largest and arguably the most astonishing religious structure on Earth, built for Suryavarman II in the 12th Century in modern-day Cambodia. It is said to have more stone in it than the Great Pyramid of Giza, and much of the surface is intricately carved and remarkably well preserved. For the last 900 years Angkor Wat has been a centre of religion, whether Hinduism, Buddhism or Animism or a combination of those, and a source of wonder to Cambodians and visitors from around the world.

    With

    Piphal HengPostdoctoral scholar at the Cotsen Institute and the Programme for Early Modern Southeast Asia at UCLA

    Ashley ThompsonHiram W Woodward Chair of Southeast Asian Art at SOAS University of London

    And

    Simon WarrackA stone conservator who has worked extensively at Angkor Wat

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Czech educator Jan Amos Komenský (1592-1670) known throughout Europe in his lifetime under the Latin version of his name, Comenius. A Protestant and member of the Unity of Brethren, he lived much of his life in exile, expelled from his homeland under the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and he wanted to address the deep antagonisms underlying the wars that were devastating Europe especially The Thirty Years War (1618-1648). A major part of his plan was Universal Education, in which everyone could learn about everything, and better understand each other and so tolerate their religious differences and live side by side. His ideas were to have a lasting influence on education, even though the peace that followed the Thirty Years War only entrenched the changes in his homeland that made his life there impossible.

    The image above is from a portrait of Comenius by Jürgen Ovens, 1650 - 1670, painted while he was living in Amsterdam and held in the Rikjsmuseum

    With

    Vladimir UrbanekSenior Researcher in the Department of Comenius Studies and Early Modern Intellectual History at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences

    Suzanna IvanicLecturer in Early Modern European History at the University of Kent

    And

    Howard HotsonProfessor of Early Modern Intellectual History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Anne’s College

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the accounts by Eusebius of Caesarea (c260-339 AD) and others of the killings of Christians in the first three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus. Eusebius was writing in a time of peace, after The Great Persecution that had started with Emperor Diocletian in 303 AD and lasted around eight years. Many died under Diocletian, and their names are not preserved, but those whose deaths are told by Eusebius became especially celebrated and their stories became influential. Through his writings, Eusebius shaped perceptions of what it meant to be a martyr in those years, and what it meant to be a Christian.

    The image above is of The Martyrdom of Saint Blandina (1886) at the Church of Saint-Blandine de Lyon, France

    With:

    Candida MossEdward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham

    Kate CooperProfessor of History at Royal Holloway, University of London

    And

    James Corke-WebsterSenior Lecturer in Classics, History and Liberal Arts at King’s College London

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing work of Michelangelo (1477-1564) in this great chapel in the Vatican, firstly the ceiling with images from Genesis (of which the image above is a detail) and later The Last Judgement on the altar wall. For the Papacy, Michelangelo's achievement was a bold affirmation of the spiritual and political status of the Vatican, of Rome and of the Catholic Church. For the artist himself, already famous as the sculptor of David in Florence, it was a test of his skill and stamina, and of the potential for art to amaze which he realised in his astonishing mastery of the human form.

    With

    Catherine FletcherProfessor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University

    Sarah VowlesThe Smirnov Family Curator of Italian and French Prints and Drawings at the British Museum

    And

    Matthias WivelThe Aud Jebsen Curator of Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings at the National Gallery

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

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  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the form of Christianity adopted by Ostrogoths in the 4th century AD, which they learned from Roman missionaries and from their own contact with the imperial court at Constantinople. This form spread to the Vandals and the Visigoths, who took it into Roman Spain and North Africa, and the Ostrogoths brought it deeper into Italy after the fall of the western Roman empire. Meanwhile, with the Roman empire in the east now firmly committed to the Nicene Creed not the Arian, the Goths and Vandals faced conflict or conversion, as Arianism moved from an orthodox view to being a heresy that would keep followers from heaven and delay the Second Coming for all.

    The image above is the ceiling mosaic of the Arian Baptistry in Ravenna, commissioned by Theodoric, ruler of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy, around the end of the 5th century

    With

    Judith HerrinProfessor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Emeritus, at King's College London

    Robin WhelanLecturer in Mediterranean History at the University of Liverpool

    And

    Martin PalmerVisiting Professor in Religion, History and Nature at the University of Winchester

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea and experience of Christian pilgrimage in Europe from the 12th to the 15th centuries, which figured so strongly in the imagination of the age. For those able and willing to travel, there were countless destinations from Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela to the smaller local shrines associated with miracles and relics of the saints. Meanwhile, for those unable or not allowed to travel there were journeys of the mind, inspired by guidebooks that would tell the faithful how many steps they could take around their homes to replicate the walk to the main destinations in Rome and the Holy Land, passing paintings of the places on their route.

    The image above is of a badge of St Thomas of Canterbury, worn by pilgrims who had journeyed to his shrine.

    With

    Miri RubinProfessor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London

    Kathryn RudyProfessor of Art History at the University of St Andrews

    And

    Anthony BaleProfessor of Medieval Studies and Dean of the School of Arts at Birkbeck, University of London

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Northumbrian man who, for 500 years, was the pre-eminent English saint, to be matched only by Thomas Becket after his martyrdom in 1170. Now at Durham, Cuthbert was buried first on Lindisfarne in 687AD, where monks shared vivid stories of his sanctifying miracles, his healing, and his power over nature, and his final tomb became a major site of pilgrimage. In his lifetime he was both hermit and kingmaker, bishop and travelling priest, and the many accounts we have of him, including two by Bede, tell us much of the values of those who venerated him so soon after his death.

    The image above is from a stained glass window in the south aisle of the nave in Durham Cathedral: 'St Cuthbert praying before his cell in the Farne Island'

    With

    Jane HawkesProfessor of Medieval Art History at the University of York

    Sarah FootThe Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford and Canon of Christ Church Cathedral

    And

    John HinesProfessor of Archaeology at Cardiff University

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Wesley (1703 - 1791) and the movement he was to lead and inspire. As a student, he was mocked for approaching religion too methodically and this jibe gave a name to the movement: Methodism. Wesley took his ideas out across Britain wherever there was an appetite for Christian revival, preaching in the open, especially the new industrial areas. Others spread Methodism too, such as George Whitefield, and the sheer energy of the movement led to splits within it, but it soon became a major force.

    With

    Stephen PlantDean and Runcie Fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge

    Eryn WhiteReader in Early Modern History at Aberystwyth University

    And

    William GibsonProfessor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford Brookes University and Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History

    Produced by Simon Tillotson and Julia Johnson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that God created the universe and then left it for humans to understand by reason not revelation. Edward Herbert, 1583-1648 (pictured above) held that there were five religious truths: belief in a Supreme Being, the need to worship him, the pursuit of a virtuous life as the best form of worship, repentance, and reward or punishment after death. Others developed these ideas in different ways, yet their opponents in England's established Church collected them under the label of Deists, called Herbert the Father of Deism and attacked them as a movement, and Deist books were burned. Over time, reason and revelation found a new balance in the Church in England, while Voltaire and Thomas Paine explored the ideas further, leading to their re-emergence in the French and American Revolutions.

    With

    Richard SerjeantsonFellow and Lecturer in History at Trinity College, Cambridge

    Katie EastLecturer in History at Newcastle University

    And

    Thomas AhnertProfessor of Intellectual History at the University of Edinburgh

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the bonds that Scottish Presbyterians made between themselves and their monarchs in the 16th and 17th Centuries, to maintain their form of worship. These covenants bound James VI of Scotland to support Presbyterians yet when he became James I he was also expected to support episcopacy. That tension came to a head under Charles I who found himself on the losing side of a war with the Covenanters, who later supported Parliament before backing the future Charles II after he had pledged to support them. Once in power, Charles II failed to deliver the religious settlement the Covenanters wanted, and set about repressing them violently. Those who refused to renounce the covenants were persecuted in what became known as The Killing Times, as reflected in the image above.

    With

    Roger MasonProfessor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews

    Laura StewartProfessor of Early Modern British History at the University of York

    And

    Scott SpurlockProfessor of Scottish and Early Modern Christianities at the University of Glasgow

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas developed by the Anglican priest John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), drawn from his reading of scripture, in which Jesus would suddenly take His believers up into the air, and those left behind would suffer on Earth until He returned with His church to rule for a thousand years before Final Judgement. Some believers would look for signs that civilization was declining, such as wars and natural disasters, or for new Roman Empires that would harbour the Antichrist, and from these predict the time of the Rapture. Darby helped establish the Plymouth Brethren, and later his ideas were picked up in the Scofield Reference Bible (1909) and soon became influential, particularly in the USA.

    With

    Elizabeth PhillipsResearch Fellow at the Margaret Beaufort Institute at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University

    Crawford GribbenProfessor of Early Modern British History at Queen’s University Belfast

    and

    Nicholas GuyattReader in North American History at the University of Cambridge

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the range, depth and style of Browne (1605-82) , a medical doctor whose curious mind drew him to explore and confess his own religious views, challenge myths and errors in science and consider how humans respond to the transience of life. His Religio Medici became famous throughout Europe and his openness about his religion, in that work, was noted as rare when others either kept quiet or professed orthodox views. His Pseudodoxia Epidemica challenged popular ideas, whether about the existence of mermaids or if Adam had a navel, and his Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial was a meditation on what matters to humans when handling the dead. In 1923, Virginia Woolf wrote, "Few people love the writings of Sir Thomas Browne, but those that do are the salt of the earth." He also contributed more words to the English language than almost anyone, such as electricity, indigenous, medical, ferocious, carnivorous ambidextrous and migrant.

    With

    Claire PrestonProfessor of Renaissance Literature at Queen Mary University of London

    Jessica WolfeProfessor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    And

    Kevin KilleenProfessor of English at the University of York

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how artists from the Middle Ages onwards have been inspired by the Bible story of the widow who killed an Assyrian general who was besieging her village, and so saved her people from his army and from his master Nebuchadnezzar. A symbol of a woman's power and the defiance of political tyranny, the image of Judith has been sculpted by Donatello, painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and, in the case of Caravaggio, Liss and Artemisia Gentileschi, been shown with vivid, disturbing detail. What do these interpretations reveal of the attitudes to power and women in their time, and of the artists' own experiences?

    The image of Judith, above is from a tapestry in the Duomo, Milan, by Giovanni or Nicola Carcher, 1555

    With

    Susan FoisterCurator of Early Netherlandish, German and British Painting at the National Gallery

    John GashSenior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Aberdeen

    And

    Ela Nutu HallResearch Associate at the Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies, at the University of Sheffield

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why, in 1870, the Vatican Council issued the decree ‘pastor aeternus’ which, among other areas, affirmed papal infallibility. It meant effectively that the Pope could not err in his teachings, an assertion with its roots in the early Church when the bishop of Rome advanced to being the first among equals, then overall head of the Christian Church in the West. The idea that the Pope could not err had been a double-edged sword from the Middle Ages, though; while it apparently conveyed great power, it also meant a Pope was constrained by whatever a predecessor had said. If a later Pope were to contradict an earlier Pope, then one of them must be wrong, and how could that be…if both were infallible?

    With

    Tom O’LoughlinProfessor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham

    Rebecca RistProfessor in Medieval History at the University of Reading

    And

    Miles PattendenDepartmental Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Oxford

    Producer: Simon Tillotson and Julia Johnson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war in Europe which begain in 1618 and continued on such a scale and with such devastation that its like was not seen for another three hundred years. It pitched Catholics against Protestants, Lutherans against Calvinists and Catholics against Catholics across the Holy Roman Empire, drawing in their neighbours and it lasted for thirty gruelling years, from the Defenestration of Prague to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Many more civilians died than soldiers, and famine was so great that even cannibalism was excused. This topic was chosen from several hundred suggested by listeners this autumn.

    The image above is a detail from a painting of The Battle of White Mountain on 7-8 November 1620, by Pieter Snayers (1592-1667)

    With

    Peter WilsonChichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford

    Ulinka RublackProfessor of Early Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College

    And

    Toby OsborneAssociate Professor in History at Durham University

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

  • Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope. To the ancient Greeks, hope was closer to self-deception, one of the evils left in Pandora's box or jar, in Hesiod's story. In Christian tradition, hope became one of the theological virtues, the desire for divine union and the expectation of receiving it, an action of the will rather than the intellect. To Kant, 'what may I hope' was one of the three basic questions which human reason asks, while Nietzsche echoed Hesiod, arguing that leaving hope in the box was a deception by the gods, reflecting human inability to face the demands of existence. Yet even those critical of hope, like Camus, conceded that life was nearly impossible without it.

    With

    Beatrice Han-PileProfessor of Philosophy at the University of Essex

    Robert SternProfessor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield

    And

    Judith WolfeProfessor of Philosophical Theology at the University of St Andrews

    Producer: Simon Tillotson