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The word hypocrite gets used with such regularity – and Jesus himself had form using the term.
How did the Pharisees became a byword for hypocrisy and is it fair? Was Jesus wrong about the Pharisees? Is the view of the Pharisees changing?
To discuss Giles Fraser is joined by Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt University and co-author of ‘The Pharisees’, James Alison a Catholic Theologian and Dr Stephen de Wijze, a philosopher and Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at Manchester University.
Producer: Alexa Good Assistant Producer: Linda Walker Editor: Tim Pemberton
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Faith based comedy is growing in popularity. Why is religion such a good source for jokes? Is God funny? And, is there anywhere with religion that you just don’t go?
Dillon Mapletoft, the writer and creator of hit comedy Everyone Else Burns, explains his fundamentalist Christian upbringing and the influence it had on him writing the coming-of-age sitcom about a Manchester family who are part of a puritanical Christian sect and doomsday cult.
To explore Giles Fraser is joined by Shazia Mirza, comedian and part of a female only Halal comedy tour, Shanny Luft, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Winconsin, and Ashley Blaker, a Jewish comedian and writer once described as "the UK's only Orthodox comedian".
Producer: Alexa Good Assistant Producer: Linda Walker Editor: Tim Pemberton
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Giles Fraser and guests hear from authors of detective fiction, Kate Charles and Martin Edwards, on the subtle ways they weave faith into the crime puzzles in their novels.
Why is religious detective fiction so popular in our increasingly secular society? Did the detective replace the priest as the one who looked into the mysteries of life and battled with good and evil? Why do religion and detective fiction share so many noble pursuits in common? And, what is it about the detective genre that lends itself to such deep ethical and spiritual questions?
To explore Giles is joined by:
James Runcie, author of numerous books, including The Grantchester Mysteries, a series of six detective novels featuring the clerical detective Sidney Chambers. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of both the Crime Writer’s Association and The Detection Club.
Ausma Khan, author of the Blackwater Falls crime series and the founder of the Muslim Writers Index.
Dror Mishani the author of the Avraham Avraham detective series that has been turned into a TV series by David E. Kelley. He is a literary scholar, specialising in the history of crime fiction, and the head of the creative writing program at Tel Aviv University.
Producer: Alexa GoodAssistant Producer: Linda WalkerEditor: Tim Pemberton
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Mona Siddiqui and guests hear from Rev Denzil Larbi. He reflects on his cousin, Elianne Andam, who was 15 when she was fatally stabbed at a bus stop in Croydon, South London, in September 2023. He discusses their Christmases together and how the family mark Christmas without her.
The panel of guests explore the complexities that often come with religious festivals especially those that come with an expectation of jollity.
Do religions do enough for those who are grieving or isolated at times of collective merriment? Should religious leaders and communities be more responsible and nuanced in their approach? And, are some religions better at dealing with grief than others?
To discuss Mona is joined by Jasvir Singh, from the Department of Theology and Religion at Birmingham University, Chair of City Sikhs, and the founder and Chair of the British Sikh Report, the Revd Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James's, Piccadilly, and Priest-in-Charge of St Pancras's Church, Euston Road, and Remona Aly, British Muslim journalist, commentator and broadcaster with a focus on faith, identity and lifestyle.
Producer: Alexa Good Assistant Producer: Linda Walker Editor: Tim Pemberton
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The Rev Tara Hellings, an Anglican vicar, outlines her experiences of conducting funerals at a Pet Crematorium in Winchfield, and Nurul Ain Abdul Hamid, a Muslim who runs a dog and cat shelter in Malaysia, shares her beliefs on the equality of all animals.
Do animals have souls? Are all animals equal? And, how do these concepts feed into religious teachings about animals in the afterlife?
To discuss, Giles is joined by Anuradha Dooney, a Fellow of the Oxford Centre Hindu Studies, Fr Terry Martin, a vegan and Catholic priest, and author of the new book 'Animals in Heaven?' and Joyce D'Silva, Compassion in World Farming's Ambassador Emeritus and the author of ‘Animal Welfare in World Religion: Teaching and Practice’.
Producer: Alexa GoodAssistant Producer: Linda WalkerEditor: Chloe Walker
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Imam Asim Hafiz, the first Muslim chaplain to the British Armed Forces and an Islamic advisor for the Ministry of Defence, who has been working with the armed forces since 2004 discusses the many changes which have seen attitudes towards his role shifting according to the political climate and Mandeep Kaur, who was appointed as the first and only Sikh Chaplain for the entire British Armed Forces, reflects on why the idea of military chaplaincy may seem like a difficult job to take on and the impact of the role within faith communities.
There are approximately 260 regular and 58 reserve chaplains across the armed forces. They serve personnel dealing with the pressures of being away from home, working in hostile environments and dealing with life and death decisions. How has the service evolved to support the broad range of beliefs represented in the armed forces? And how can religious belief really be balanced with the very real possibility of military action leading to loss of life?
To discuss Giles is joined by Roger Hutton, President of Defence Humanists and former Ministry of Defence Director International Security, Dr. Sunil Kariyakarawana, the first Buddhist Chaplain to the British Armed Forces, and the Revd Joanna Jepson, an Anglican priest and a Chaplain to the British Army.
Producers: Alexa Good and Linda WalkerEditors: Tim Pemberton and Chloe Walker
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Giles Fraser meets Stephen Schneck, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, to explore the impact of globalisation on religious freedom.
Restrictions on religious freedom are increasing. What impact has the spread of religious traditions had on freedom of belief? How does the secularisation of religion contribute? Should states be forced to adopt norms of religious rights and freedoms to meet international pressure? And what can be done about the perceived threat communities feel when they are exposed to other religions?
To discuss Giles is joined by HRH Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the UK, Dr Nazila Ghanea, an Iranian-born Professor in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford and UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, an exiled Nicaraguan politician and economist.
Producer: Alexa Good Assistant Producer: Linda WalkerEditors: Chloe Walker
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In her poem 'God's Garden', Dorothy Frances Gurney writes:
'One is nearer God’s heart in a gardenThan anywhere else on earth.’
Join Giles Fraser and a panel of green-fingered guests as they gather together at the Aga Khan Centre in Kings Cross to reflect on the theological significance of gardens and gardening.
From Eden and Gethsemane, to the ancient Islamic gardens of Andalusia, to the Japanese Gardens of Zen Buddhism; temples to churchyards, these sacred zones have been places of solace and reflection for millennia; places of life and death, of peace and tranquillity.Here, even non-religious gardeners find common ground with their religious counterparts: on their knees, often in silence, hands in the earth. For many, gardening is the answer. We hear from Jill Smith - lay minister and trustee of 'The Quiet Garden Movement', who tells us how her garden is a place of healing.
Our panellists are Dr Omar Ali de Unzaga - Head of Ismaili Studies at the Aga Khan Centre, Revd Lucy Winkett - Rector at St James' Church in Piccadilly, and Ai Hishii - Director of Japanese garden architects, Momiji Design.
*You can visit the Islamic Gardens at the Aga Khan Centre for free - book online.
Presenter: Giles FraserProducers: James Leesley and Bara'atu IbrahimEditor: Tim Pemberton
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Giles Fraser explores the parallels and overlaps between spirituality/religion and psychotherapy.
Professor Josh Cohen is a psychotherapist, who believes that God can be a problematic figure in the therapy room.
Joining the discussion with Giles is Dr Jeremy Holmes, British Psychiatrist and author of -The Spirit of Psychotherapy- which examines the parallels, contrasts, and overlaps between the secular world of psychotherapy and the realm of spirituality. Dr Rania Awaad; Stanford University Professor, Psychiatry, Islamic Law & Theology. And Canon Leanne Roberts; Church of England priest and psychotherapist (Jungian) Dean of Clergy well-being for the Diocese of Southwark.
In 2023 the NHS recorded 1.76 million referrals to their talking therapies programme in England. The British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy say their membership has risen by 27% since 2020. However, you can now access services from therapists within Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and many more of the faiths.
Can therapeutic models replace religion as a way of exploring and understanding our inner worlds? Is religion an awkward spectre in a therapy room? What’s the difference between religion as something dealt with dispassionately and a therapist who bills themselves as a religious psychotherapist ?
Producer: Rebecca Maxted & Bara'atu IbrahimAssistant Producer: James LeesleyEditor: Tim Pemberton
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Giles Fraser hears about the revolutionary ideas of late theologian Jürgen Moltmann, whose work challenged and transformed Christian ideas of God in the twentieth century.
Hamburg, July 1943. The combined might of the Allies rains bombs down on the city causing a catastrophic firestorm. A young German anti-aircraft bomber cries out to God in the midst of devastation. He would go on to be one of the most important Christian theologians of the twentieth century.
Giles Fraser recounts how he first started to develop his ideas at a Prisoner of War camp in Scotland after the Second World War. His books, including The Theology of Hope and The Crucified God would go on to be seminal works for those studying Christianity, but would also have far-reaching influence. He also wrote about liberating those oppressed, ecology and the environment and feminism.
Joining Giles to discuss why his work matters is Professor Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Ceter for Faith and Culture, who knew Moltmann as a PHD supervisor and friend. Also on the panel are Professor Candida Moss and Professor Celia Deane-Drummond.
Does God suffer, as we suffer and what difference does this make to faith and belief?
Producer: Rebecca MaxtedAssistant Producer: James LeesleyEditor: Tim Pemberton
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Giles Fraser explores the place of wine in some religious traditions, as the blood of Christ, the nectar of the Greek Gods or Persian poets, to something forbidden or proscribed.
We start on a balmy evening in Napa Valley, with a sea breeze blowing through the vines at Marinda Kruger's vineyard. For her, life as a viticulturalist has an intimate connection to her faith.
Gisela H Kreglinger, theologian from a wine-making family, Catholic Priest, Father Marc Lyden-Smith and Muhammad Ali Mojaradi, translator of the Persian Sufi poets under the moniker Persian Poetics on social media, join Giles to consider the pleasures and prohibition of wine.
Many scriptures and religious poetry are awash with the stuff. Wine flows in heaven, goblets elicit a kind of spiritual ecstasy and Noah's first act after the flood? To plant a vineyard. What has been wine's significance in different religious traditions, and what does our relationship to it reveal about our earthly selves?
Producer: Rebecca MaxtedAssistant Producer: James LeesleyEditor: Tim Pemberton
This programme includes a short clip of Silvestre Le Trouzel reading from Babette's Feast, recorded for BBC Radio 4's Bedtime Stories and first broadcast in 2016. Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.
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Street evangelist Marios Kaikitis tells Giles Fraser why he stands on Leicester Square with a sketch board trying to engage passers by with his message of Jesus Christ.
And Giles explores how different religious groups, within Christianity and Islam, evangelise today. Perhaps crucially, does it work?
He's joined by Daryl A Watson, a mission leader at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormon church, Dr Shuruq Naguib, a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Lancaster University and Reverend Dr Hannah Steele, Director of St Mellitus theological college in London, who writes about evangelism and mission today.
They discuss the practical, moral and spiritual issues faced by those who want or feel compelled to share their religious beliefs with others. In an increasingly secular country, it it getting more difficult?
Producer: Rebecca MaxtedAssistant Producer: James Leesley Editor: Tim Pemberton
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Recorded live at the Bradford Literature Festival three poets join Giles Fraser to consider the relationship between poetry and the divine.
Some of our most feted poets, from Rumi to John Donne, Tagore to William Blake – have found that poetry opens up a space to explore the divine. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare praised the poet’s eye, glancing ‘from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven’ as ‘imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown’.
In front of a live audience, a fascinating panel of contemporary poets and wordsmiths join Giles to discuss whether poetry can help bridge the gap between the physical and metaphysical worlds. Camille Ralphs, Testament and Kate Fox consider how their forebears have used words to try and climb spiritual ascents. Reading some of their own work, they’ll also share their own relationships between art and faith.
Producer: Rebecca MaxtedAssistant Producers: James Leesley and Ruth Purser Editor: Tim Pemberton
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Why is walking spiritual? Giles Fraser asks if the power of pilgrimage in it's destination, or along the pathway.
Alice Sainsbury was recovering from a serious neurological illness when she slowly started to walk again. Step by step she found herself again through walking, and small pilgrimages near her home in Cornwall. It wasn't just a physical journey for her, but a spiritual one as well.
She tells Giles Fraser why she walks. And Giles asks a panel of enthusiastic pilgrims from different faiths about the religious beliefs behind walking and pilgrimage.
Phil McCarthy, a former GP, has founded Pilgrim Ways, promoting walking pilgrimages in England and Wales. Sr Radharamana Das is a scholar in Sanskrit and Vedic literatures and a volunteer at his local Hare Krishna temple. And Professor Raminder Kaur is the leader of a project about pilgrimage and economics at the University of Sussex.
Boots laced, let's begin.
Producer: Rebecca MaxtedAssistant Producer: James LeesleyEditor: Tim Pemberton
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Giles Fraser meets Hafsa Rizki, a British Muslim women who coaches women in polygamous relationships. Her husband was already married when they met and got married themselves. She doesn't like the term, but she says she is a second wife and tells Giles about why it's a successful relationship, and how it's part of her spiritual journey.
Perhaps surprisingly, polygamy is 'more commonplace' than might be expected in the UK, according to Dame Louise Casey in her government review on integration and equality in 2016. In a society where the model of monogamy has dominated for centuries, what leads people to enter polygamous marriages? What is it's religious history and what are the ethical and moral questions it raises? Plus, as polyamory is more openly discussed and practiced, is the model of monogamy no longer fit for purpose?
To discuss Giles is joined by Yasmin Rehman, CEO of Juno Women's Aid and a campaigner on women's rights, Imam Waleid Allam and Susannah Cornwall, Professor on Constructive Theologies at the University of Exeter.
Producer: Rebecca MaxtedAssistant Producer: Linda WalkerEditors: Tim Pemberton and Rajeev Gupta
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Bunny Love-Schock is an interfaith minister and practising witch. She has a devotional practice to the figure of Lilith, a character who has appeared in myth and religious storytelling for centuries. She’s been a demoness, a monster linked to owls, screeching and with wings. In the middle ages you might have been afraid of her harming your unborn or young children.
Now, Bunny tells us how she’s seen as a Goddess figure, in all her ambivalence.
Giles Fraser explores the monsters that have snarled at us from religious writings. What is their relationship to the divine? What are they trying to tell us and how do we see them now?
He’s joined by Professor Esther Hamori, author of ‘God’s Monsters’ who reminds us of the fearsome nature of angels, Dr Bihani Sarkar who has stories from classic Hindu literature and Natalie Lawrence, whose fascination with folklore and ancient myth inspired her book 'Enchanted Creatures'.
Producer: Rebecca MaxtedAssistant Producer: Ruth PurserEditor: Jonathan Hallewell
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In a temple in Southall, west London, Giles Fraser hears about the spiritual significance for British Hindus of the opening of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, consecrated with much fanfare in January 2024 by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As Indians go to the polls in the largest democratic election in history, what is the relationship between religion and politics in the country?
Giles is joined by Professor Shruti Kapila, Associate Professor Ashraf Hoque and Dr Prakash Shah to discuss the temple's significance and the controversy that surrounded it, built on the site of a previous Muslim mosque, which was pulled down by a mob in 1992. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is campaigning for re-election. He's the head of the BJP party, aligned to ideas of Hindu nationalism. Does the temple help us to understand the complicated and contested political, cultural and historical grounds over which the current election is being fought?
Producer: Rebecca Maxted Assistant Producer: Ruth PurserEditor: Jonathan Hallewell
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Eddy Elsey, an estate agent in London, was struggling with his mental health and looking for support. Like 37% of people, according to the last census in England and Wales, traditional religion wasn’t a place he turned to. But, as he tells Giles Fraser, he did find a spiritual connection through shamanism, which has helped him.
When people say they are "spiritual but not religious", what do they mean and what do they believe?
A group of people who make use of spiritual ideologies describe their practices, from sound healing to astrology. What are oracle cards and how do you carry out a shamanic divination?
Giles meets Celestial Tree, an astrologist, Jo Moore a yoga teacher and reiki practitioner and Linda Woodhead, Professor of Moral and Social Theology at Kings College, London, who has researched the growth of spiritualities. What draws people towards them?
Producer: Rebecca MaxtedAssistant Producer: Ruth PurserEditor: Jonathan Hallewell
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Giles Fraser hears from a Mum of two who describes how her family’s neurodivergence has affected their practice of faith. Carolina Mountford has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and strong autistic traits. Her two sons are also neurodivergent and Carolina describes some of the challenges that poses in their Christian evangelical church.
A panel discusses what faith leaders and communities can learn about spirituality by embracing neurodiversity, in children and adults. What is the relationship between spirituality and the neurodiverse brain? Is there a different relationship with theology, and with God?
Giles is joined by Parveen Mahal, co-founder of the Sikh Disabilty Charity SEN Seva and Rabbi Miriam Berger, who has devised special barmitzvah and batmitzvah ceremonies at Finchley Reform Synagogue, suited to the needs of neurodivergent 13-year olds. We also hear from Dr Joanna Leidenhag, who is Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy at the University of Leeds, with a current focus on autism and Christianity.
Producers: Rebecca Maxted and Peter EverettAssistant Producer: Ruth PurserEditor: Jonathan Hallewell
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In our society feet are often hidden away in shoes, perhaps to make an odd appearance post pedicure… but they can be an incredibly powerful symbol within many religions.
Giles Fraser meets Kai Bridges, a Shamanic practitioner who guides people through firewalks as part of his spiritual practice. For him firewalking goes beyond an exercise in empowerment and grounds him in the moment, connecting him to the elements.
Our panel Sughra Ahmed, Priyesh Patel and Lucy Winkett walk us through what feet symbolise in their respective faith traditions, and the different ways feet are a part of religious tradition and practice. Presenter: Giles FraserProducers: Ruth Purser and Katharine LongworthEditor: Tim Pemberton
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