Religion
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129 episodes
Karma
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development of the doctrine of Karma, broadly of reaping what you sow, from the ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism down to today.
20 June 2024
Featuring: Monima Chadha, Jessica Frazier, Karen O’Brien-Kop
Julian the Apostate
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosopher-emperor of Rome who sought to undo the empire's ties with Christianity in the 4th century AD and promote paganism
21 March 2024
Featuring: James Corke-Webster, Lea Niccolai, Shaun Tougher
Karl Barth
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Swiss theologian who aimed to put God and Christ at the heart of Christianity when he saw others making humanity and self-revelation its focus.
07 December 2023
Featuring: Stephen Plant, Christiane Tietz, Tom Greggs
ReligionFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesChristian ethicistsAcademic staff of the University of GöttingenProtestants in the German ResistanceFilioquePeople associated with the University of BaselDuke University facultyExistentialist theologiansSystematic theologians20th-century Swiss writersJulian of Norwich
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the anchoress, who is probably the earliest named woman writer in English, and her celebrated work on her visions of the suffering of Christ.
19 October 2023
Featuring: Katherine Lewis, Philip Sheldrake, Laura Kalas
ReligionWomen religious writersWomen mysticsEnglish religious writersWriters from Norwich15th-century English writersMedieval English theologians15th-century English women writers, 15th-century deaths, English Catholic mystics, 14th-century English women writers, Middle English literature, 14th-century Christian mysticsThe Dead Sea Scrolls
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revelatory collection of Biblical texts and other documents dating from around 250 BC to AD 68, which were first rediscovered in a cave in 1946
4 May 2023
Featuring: Sarah Pearce, Charlotte Hempel, George Brooke
The Ramayana
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Sanskrit epic, one of the greatest works of world literature, which is still seen as a sacred and influential text by Hindus today.
9 March 2023
Featuring: Jessica Frazier, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Naomi Appleton
John Donne
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the extraordinary life and work of one of England's finest love poets and, as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, most remarkable preachers.
12 January 2023
Featuring: Mary Ann Lund, Sue Wiseman, Hugh Adlington
CultureAnglican saintsWriters about activism and social changeEnglish male poetsPhilosophers of religionSonneteersCritics of the Catholic ChurchEnglish male non-fiction writers17th-century English male writersLiteracy and society theorists16th-century English poets17th-century English poetsLiterary theoristsLutheran saintsPeople celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendarAnglican poetsChristian poetsEnglish satiristsPeople from the City of LondonEnglish people of Welsh descentMetaphor theoristsWriters from LondonEpigrammatistsPamphleteers16th-century English male writers17th-century Anglican theologiansAlumni of Hart Hall, OxfordIndependent scholarsMetaphysical poetsPoet priestsAngkor Wat
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing and massive Cambodian temple commissioned by Suryavarman II in the 12th century, a centre for Hinduism, Buddhism and Animism.
23 June 2022
Featuring: Piphal Heng, Ashley Thompson, Simon Warrack
Jan Amos Komenský
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Czech man who tried to use education to build a better understanding between the peoples of Europe who were otherwise divided by religious wars.
19 May 2022
Featuring: Vladimir Urbanek, Suzanna Ivanic, Howard Hotson
Early Christian Martyrdom
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the lives of martyrs in the first three centuries of Christianity and how Eusebius presented their stories once the Roman Empire became Christian.
28 April 2022
Featuring: Candida Moss, Kate Cooper, James Corke-Webster
The Sistine Chapel
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss this extraordinary achievement of Michelangelo in the Vatican with frescoes from Genesis on the ceiling and The Last Judgement on the altar wall.
31 March 2022
Featuring: Catherine Fletcher, Sarah Vowles, Matthias Wivel
Arianism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a widely shared form of Christianity, followed in the Roman empire and by the Goths across its borders, that became an infamous heresy.
15 April 2021
Featuring: Judith Herrin, Robin Whelan, Martin Palmer
Medieval Pilgrimage
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise of pilgrimage for Christians in Europe in the Middle Ages and options for those who could only imagine pilgrimages and imitate them at home
18 February 2021
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Kathryn Rudy, Anthony Bale
Saint Cuthbert
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life of the Northumbrian monk, priest and hermit who lived on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and became one of England's most revered saints.
28 January 2021
Featuring: Jane Hawkes, Sarah Foot, John Hines
John Wesley and Methodism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the difference John Wesley made during the Christian Revival of the 18th Century, developing Methodism into a major movement around the world
10 December 2020
Featuring: Stephen Plant, Eryn White, William Gibson
ReligionAnglican saintsChristian humanistsChristian radicalsLutheran saintsPeople celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendarFounders of religionsEnglish abolitionistsAlumni of Christ Church, OxfordEnglish evangelicalsEnglish pamphleteersFounders of English schools and collegesGerman–English translators18th-century Anglican theologians18th-century English diarists18th-century evangelicalsChristian vegetariansChristianity in OxfordEnglish Anglican theologiansEnglish sermon writersTranslators of the Bible into EnglishDeism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Enlightenment idea that God created the universe and then stood back, for it to be understood by reason alone and not revelation.
8 October 2020
Featuring: Richard Serjeantson, Katie East, Thomas Ahnert
The Covenanters
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Scottish Presbyterian pledges to advance their beliefs in the face of episcopacy and Roman Catholicism, and their impact across Britain and Ireland.
12 March 2020
Featuring: Roger Mason, Laura Stewart, Scott Spurlock
The Rapture
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of the idea developed by John Nelson Darby that believers will vanish suddenly, 'to meet the Lord in the air' before the Second Coming
26 September 2019
Featuring: Elizabeth Phillips, Crawford Gribben, Nicholas Guyatt
Sir Thomas Browne
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and language of Browne (1605-82), a doctor sharing his personal views on science, history and religion at a time of great change
6 June 2019
Featuring: Claire Preston, Jessica Wolfe, Kevin Killeen
Judith beheading Holofernes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how artists such as Gentileschi, Caravaggio and Klimt responded to this Bible story of the widow who killed an enemy general to save her people.
14 February 2019
Featuring: Susan Foister, John Gash, Ela Nutu Hall
Papal Infallibility
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the idea that Popes cannot err when defining a doctrine, in office, proclaimed at the First Vatican Council 1869-70
10 January 2019
Featuring: Tom O'Loughlin, Rebecca Rist, Miles Pattenden
The Thirty Years War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a topic suggested by listeners: the war which was centred on the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 and was unequalled in scale until C20th
6 December 2018
Featuring: Peter Wilson, Ulinka Rublack, Toby Osborne
Hope
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development of ideas about hope, left in Pandora's box either as a consolation or as another evil, later the companion of faith and love
22 November 2018
Featuring: Beatrice Han-Pile, Robert Stern, Judith Wolfe
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bonhoeffer's ideas about Christian ethics, the role of the Church in a secular world, and his attempts to overthrow Hitler.
27 September 2018
Featuring: Stephen Plant, Eleanor McLaughlin, Tom Greggs
Augustine's Confessions
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Augustine's account of his life, sometimes called the first autobiography, written around AD397 after he had been appointed as Bishop of Hippo.
15 March 2018
Featuring: Kate Cooper, Morwenna Ludlow, Martin Palmer
The Siege of Malta, 1565
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fierce contest for Malta, which the Ottomans tried to prise from the Knights Hospitaller who they they had already driven from Rhodes in 1522.
11 January 2018
Featuring: Helen Nicholson, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Kate Fleet
Thomas Becket
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Becket, chancellor turned archbishop, who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral and whose tomb became a centre of pilgrimage across Europe.
14 December 2017
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Michael Staunton, Danica Summerlin
Constantine the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who made Constantinople his capital rather than Rome and who legalised Christianity across the Empire.
5 October 2017
Featuring: Christopher Kelly, Lucy Grig, Greg Woolf
Purgatory
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Purgatory as an idea and, from C12th, as a place imagined alongside Heaven and Hell where souls of sinners would be purged by fire.
25 May 2017
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Matthew Treherne, Helen Foxhall Forbes
Baltic Crusades
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight, led by orders such as the Teutonic Knights and supported by the popes, to convert pagans in what became known as the Baltic Crusades.
24 November 2016
Featuring: Aleks Pluskowski, Nora Berend, Martin Palmer
Lakshmi
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune, born, according to one tradition, when she rose from the churning of the ocean of milk.
6 October 2016
Featuring: Jessica Frazier, Jacqueline Suthren-Hirst, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
Margery Kempe and English Mysticism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Margery Kempe (1373-1438), the English mystic who went to Jerusalem and dictated her life story, said to be the first autobiography in English.
2 June 2016
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Katherine Lewis, Anthony Bale
HistoryAnglican saintsWomen religious writersWomen mysticsEnglish religious writers15th-century English writersEnglish women non-fiction writersRoman Catholic mysticsEnglish Roman CatholicsEnglish autobiographersWriters from King's LynnPre-Reformation Anglican saintsFemale saints of medieval England15th-century English women writers, 15th-century deaths, English Catholic mystics, 14th-century English women writers, Middle English literature, 14th-century Christian mysticsTitus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Titus Oates and his role in starting and spreading rumours of a 'Popish Plot' against Charles II.
12 May 2016
Featuring: Clare Jackson, Mark Knights, Peter Hinds
The Sikh Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise of the Sikh empire under Ranjit Singh, who became Maharaja of the Punjab at Lahore in 1801 and united most of the Sikh kingdoms.
7 April 2016
Featuring: Gurharpal Singh, Chandrika Kaul, Susan Stronge
Mary Magdalene
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Magdalene, one of the best-known figures in the Bible.
25 February 2016
Featuring: Joanne Anderson, Eamon Duffy, Joan Taylor
The Salem Witch Trials
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Salem witch trials of 1692 and 1693, which led to the execution of 20 people in the New England colony of Massachusetts.
29 November 2015
Featuring: Susan Castillo, Simon Middleton, Marion Gibson
Prester John
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Prester John, the legendary Christian king said to rule over a lost nation in 'The Indies' and ready to support Christians in Europe.
4 June 2015
Featuring: Marianne O'Doherty, Martin Palmer, Amanda Power
Josephus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Flavius Josephus, author of The Jewish War.
21 May 2015
Featuring: Tessa Rajak, Philip Alexander, Martin Goodman
Matteo Ricci and the Ming dynasty
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Matteo Ricci's 16th-century mission to Ming Dynasty China, an important early encounter between east and west.
16 April 2015
Featuring: Mary Laven, Craig Clunas, Anne Gerritsen
Al-Ghazali
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Islamic scholar Al-Ghazali, one of the most significant and influential philosophers of the Middle Ages.
19 March 2015
Featuring: Peter Adamson, Carole Hillenbrand, Robert Gleave
Zen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Zen, a distinctively East Asian form of Buddhism.
4 December 2014
Featuring: Tim Barrett, Lucia Dolce, Eric Greene
Hildegard of Bingen
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval mystic, composer and writer Hildegard of Bingen.
26 June 2014
Featuring: Miri Rubin, William Flynn, Almut Suerbaum
HistoryAnglican saintsCatholic philosophersWomen religious writersWomen mysticsMedieval Latin-language poetsAngelic visionariesGerman classical composersGerman women philosophersRoman Catholic mystics12th-century writers in LatinDoctors of the ChurchManuscript illuminators12th-century Christian saintsPre-Reformation Anglican saintsMystic poetsBenedictine philosophersCreators of writing systemsHerbalistsThe Talmud
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Talmud, the written version of Jewish oral law and one of the most important texts of Judaism.
29 May 2014
Featuring: Philip Alexander, Norman Solomon, Laliv Clenman
Bishop Berkeley
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosopher George Berkeley, one of the most significant thinkers of the 18th century.
20 March 2014
Featuring: Peter Millican, Tom Stoneham, Michela Massimi
PhilosophyPhilosophers of scienceEnlightenment philosophersEpistemologistsEmpiricistsAlumni of Trinity College DublinIdealistsScholars of Trinity College Dublin17th-century Anglo-Irish peopleAnglican philosophers17th-century Anglican theologians18th-century Anglican theologiansAcademics of Trinity College Dublin18th-century Irish philosophersHistory of calculusPeople educated at Kilkenny College18th-century Anglo-Irish people, 18th-century Irish writers, 18th-century Irish male writersThe Trinity
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the doctrine of the Trinity, the idea of a threefold God, which lies at the heart of Christianity.
13 March 2014
Featuring: Janet Soskice, Martin Palmer, The Reverend Graham Ward
Hindu Ideas of Creation
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hindu ideas about the creation of the universe.
5 December 2013
Featuring: Jessica Frazier, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Gavin Flood
The Book of Common Prayer
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Book of Common Prayer, published after the Reformation in order to make church liturgy available in English.
17 October 2013
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Alexandra Walsham, Martin Palmer
Prophecy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the meaning and significance of prophecy in the Abrahamic religions.
13 June 2013
Featuring: Mona Siddiqui, Justin Meggitt, Jonathan Stökl
Gnosticism
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Gnosticism, a religious sect associated with early Christianity.
2 May 2013
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Caroline Humfress, Alastair Logan
The Cult of Mithras
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the cult of Mithras, a mystery religion that flourished in the Roman Empire from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD.
27 December 2012
Featuring: Greg Woolf, Almut Hintze, John North
The Upanishads
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Upanishads, the sacred texts of Hinduism. Dating from about 700 BC, their mystical and philosophical nature still resonates today.
8 November 2012
Featuring: Jessica Frazier, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Simon Brodbeck
The Ontological Argument
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ontological Argument, the philosophical attempt to prove the existence of God through reason alone.
27 September 2012
Featuring: John Haldane, Peter Millican, Clare Carlisle
King Solomon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Solomon, the biblical king celebrated in the Old Testament for his wisdom.
7 June 2012
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Philip Alexander, Katharine Dell
George Fox and the Quakers
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the foundation of the Religious Society of Friends, otherwise known as the Quakers, in the 17th century.
5 April 2012
Featuring: Justin Champion, John Coffey, Kate Peters
Erasmus
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus, one of the most significant figures of the Renaissance.
9 February 2012
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Eamon Duffy, Jill Kraye
The Safavid dynasty
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Safavid Dynasty, the rulers of early modern Persia, who had a profound impact on the cultural and religious identity of Iran.
12 January 2012
Featuring: Robert Gleave, Emma Loosley, Andrew Newman
The Concordat of Worms
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Concordat of Worms of 1122, a negotiation which marked a temporary lull in the power struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.
15 December 2011
Featuring: Henrietta Leyser, Kate Cushing, John Gillingham
Judas Maccabeus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revolutionary Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus, who in the second century BC led a successful revolt for religious freedom.
24 November 2011
Featuring: Helen Bond, Tessa Rajak, Philip Alexander
Shinto
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Japanese belief system of Shinto.
22 September 2011
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Richard Bowring, Lucia Dolce
Wyclif and the Lollards
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval philosopher and theologian John Wyclif and his followers, the Lollards.
16 June 2011
Featuring: Anthony Kenny, Anne Hudson, Rob Lutton
ReligionAnglican saintsCritics of the Catholic ChurchChristian humanistsChristian radicalsPeople excommunicated by the Catholic ChurchEnglish evangelicalsDamnatio memoriaeEnglish Reformation14th-century writers in LatinTranslators of the Bible into EnglishTranslators to English14th-century English writersRoman Catholic biblical scholars, Proto-ProtestantsIslamic Law and its Origins
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins and early development of Islamic law.
5 May 2011
Featuring: Hugh Kennedy, Robert Gleave, Mona Siddiqui
The Pelagian Controversy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Pelagian Controversy, one of the most significant doctrinal disputes of the early church.
21 April 2011
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Caroline Humfress, John Milbank
The Bhagavad Gita
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the contents and influence of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most revered texts of Hinduism.
31 March 2011
Featuring: Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Julius J. Lipner, Jessica Frazier
Maimonides
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work and influence of Maimonides. Widely regarded as the greatest Jewish philosopher of the medieval period.
17 February 2011
Featuring: John Joseph Haldane, Sarah Stroumsa, Peter Adamson
Daoism
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daoism, a Chinese belief system encompassing both religion and philosophy.
16 December 2010
Featuring: Tim Barrett, Martin Palmer, Hilde de Weerdt
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the celebrated sixteenth-century account of the suffering of Christian martyrs.
18 November 2010
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Justin Champion, Elizabeth Evenden
The Delphic Oracle
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Delphic Oracle, the most important and best documented source of prophecies in the ancient world.
30 September 2010
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall, Nick Lowe
Al-Biruni
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Central Asian polymath al-Biruni and his 11th-century book India, one of the first scholarly works about the country.
10 June 2010
Featuring: James Montgomery, Hugh Kennedy, Amira Bennison
CultureIslamic philosophersAlchemists of the medieval Islamic worldCritics of deismAstronomical instrument makersPsychology in the medieval Islamic worldAstronomers of the medieval Islamic worldExplorers of AsiaMuslim critics of atheism, AsharisMedieval Iranian pharmacologists, Transoxanian Islamic scholarsWilliam James's The Varieties of Religious Experience
Melvyn Bragg and guests Jonathan Ree, John Haldane and Gwen Griffith-Dickson discuss The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James.
13 May 2010
Featuring: Jonathan Rée, John Haldane, Gwen Griffith-Dickson
PhilosophyOntologistsPhilosophers of historyExistentialistsAnalytic philosophersPhilosophers of deathPhilosophers of warMembers of the American Academy of Arts and Letters19th-century American philosophersAmerican philosophers of religion20th-century American philosophers19th-century American writersCorresponding fellows of the British AcademyWilliam JamesPsychologists of religionAmerican philosophers of science, American philosophers of mindCalvinism
Melvyn Bragg and guests Justin Champion, Susan Hardman Moore and Diarmaid MacCulloch explore the ideas of John Calvin and their impact.
25 February 2010
Featuring: Justin Champion, Susan Hardman Moore, Diarmaid MacCulloch
The Siege of Munster
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Siege of Munster in 1534-35, when radical Anabaptists tried to create the 'New Jerusalem' in a small German town, with horrific consequences.
5 November 2009
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Charlotte Methuen, Lucy Wooding
St Thomas Aquinas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic Church's foremost western philosopher and theologian.
17 September 2009
Featuring: Martin Palmer, John Haldane, Annabel Brett
PhilosophyAnglican saintsMetaphysiciansWriters about religion and sciencePhilosophers of lawUniversity of Paris alumniAristotelian philosophersNatural law ethicistsCatholic philosophersVirtue ethicistsChristian ethicistsLutheran saintsScholastic philosophersClassical theismMedieval Latin-language poetsAngelic visionariesCritics of atheism13th-century writers in Latin13th-century philosophersDoctors of the ChurchSystematic theologiansChristian apologistsDominican mysticsThomas AquinasMagic (supernatural)Sunni and Shia Islam
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins of the theological split between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.
25 June 2009
Featuring: Amira Bennison, Robert Gleave, Hugh N. Kennedy
St Paul
Melvyn Bragg and guests Helen Bond, John Haldane and John Barclay discuss the influence of St Paul on the early Christian church and on Christian theology generally.
28 May 2009
Featuring: John Haldane, John Barclay, Helen Bond
The Siege of Vienna
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1683 siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Army. The ensuing tale of blood and drama helped define the boundaries of Europe.
14 May 2009
Featuring: Jeremy Black, Andrew Wheatcroft, Claire Norton
The Baroque Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the culture of the Baroque, from Bach and Caavaggio to the Colonnades of St Peter’s.
20 November 2008
Featuring: T. C. W. Blanning, Nigel Aston, Helen Hills
Dante's Inferno
Melvyn Bragg discusses Dante’s ‘Inferno’ - a journey through the nine circles of Hell. Dante was a medieval Italian poet and the Inferno, his greatest work, is a masterpiece of world literature.
23 October 2008
Featuring: Margaret Kean, John Took, Claire Honess
Miracles
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of miracles, the subject of fierce theological debate, intense popular piety and serious medical study.
25 September 2008
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Janet Soskice, Justin Champion
The Metaphysical Poets
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Metaphysical poets John Donne, Andrew Marvell and George Herbert, examining their rich and strange metaphors of sex, death and love.
3 July 2008
Featuring: Thomas Healy, Julie Sanders, Tom Cain
The Arab Conquests
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Arab conquests which transformed the Middle East, Persia, North Africa and Southern Europe by helping to spread the new religion of Islam.
26 June 2008
Featuring: Hugh N. Kennedy, Amira Bennison, Robert Hoyland
The Dissolution of the Monasteries
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Was Henry’s policy an act of grand larceny or the pious destruction of a corrupt institution?
27 March 2008
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Diane Purkiss, George Bernard
The Greek Myths
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Greek myths from Achilles to Zeus.
13 March 2008
Featuring: Nick Lowe, Richard Buxton, Mary Beard
The Fisher King
Melvyn Bragg and guests will be delving into the world of medieval myth and legend in pursuit of the powerful and enigmatic Fisher King.
17 January 2008
Featuring: Carolyne Larrington, Stephen Knight, Juliette Wood
The Nicene Creed
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Nicene Creed, a statement of essential faith that established the Divinity of Christ and has been spoken for over 1600 years in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches
27 December 2007
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Caroline Humfress, Andrew Louth
The Divine Right of Kings
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Divine Right of Kings. The idea that kingly authority derives from God alone bit deep into the culture of 17th century Britain.
11 October 2007
Featuring: Justin Champion, Thomas Healy, Clare Jackson
The Pilgrim Fathers
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Pilgrim Fathers and why their 1620 voyage on the Mayflower has become iconic in the American imagination.
5 July 2007
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Harry Bennett, Tim Lockley
Ockham's Razor
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophical idea of Ockham’s Razor and the medieval philosopher who gave his name to it, William of Ockham.
31 May 2007
Featuring: Anthony Kenny, Marilyn Adams, Richard Alan Cross
Spinoza
Melvyn Bragg discusses the philosopher Spinoza whose profound and complex ideas about God had him celebrated as an atheist in the 18th century.
3 May 2007
Featuring: Jonathan Rée, Sarah Hutton, John Cottingham
PhilosophySocial philosophersOntologistsPhilosophy writersPhilosophers of mindPhilosophers of historyPhilosophers of religionMetaphysiciansPhilosophers of culturePhilosophers of scienceEnlightenment philosophersEpistemologistsCritics of the Catholic ChurchAge of EnlightenmentPhilosophers of educationPantheistsJewish philosophersMetaphilosophersRationalists17th-century writers in LatinCritics of JudaismPeople of the Age of EnlightenmentDeterministsJewish translators of the BibleBaruch SpinozaSt Hilda
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Hilda, who led a large and influential network of monasteries in 7th century Britain.
5 April 2007
Featuring: John Blair, Rosemary Cramp, Sarah Foot
Wilberforce
In an unusual edition of In Our Time, marking the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade, Melvyn Bragg leaves the studio to examine the life of William Wilberforce.
22 February 2007
Featuring
ReligionAnglican saintsEnglish male non-fiction writersBurials at Westminster AbbeyEnglish AnglicansChristian radicalsAlumni of St John's College, Cambridge19th-century English non-fiction writersEnglish religious writersEnglish philanthropistsEnglish abolitionistsAnglican writers19th-century Anglicans19th-century English politicians18th-century evangelicalsBritish reformersFellows of the Royal Society of ArtsMembers of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies, British MPs 1780–1784UK MPs 1820–1826, UK MPs 1818–1820British MPs 1790–1796, British MPs 1784–1790The Jesuits
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Jesuits and their role in the education, art, politics and mythology of the Counter-Reformation.
18 January 2007
Featuring: Nigel Aston, Simon Ditchfield, Dame Olwen Hufton
Hell
Melvyn Bragg discusses the idea of Hell and its changing appearance in literature and the visual arts from Ancient Egypt to today.
21 December 2006
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Margaret Kean, Neil MacGregor
The Diet of Worms
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Diet of Worms where the Holy Roman Emperor demanded Martin Luther explain his attacks on the Catholic Church. The ensuing arguments helped trigger the Reformation.
12 October 2006
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, David Bagchi, Charlotte Methuen
The Spanish Inquisition
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish Inquisition, whose defense of medieval orthodoxy is a story of heresy, torture, courage, imprisonment, exile and death.
22 June 2006
Featuring: John Edwards, Alexander Murray, Michael Alpert
Fairies
Melvyn Bragg discusses the literary and visual depiction of fairies. Supernatural creatures inhabiting a half-way world between this one and the next, fairies are ubiquitous in human culture.
11 May 2006
Featuring: Juliette Wood, Diane Purkiss, Nicola Bown
The Oxford Movement
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Oxford Movement which asserted the Catholic tradition of the Church of England in the 19th century.
13 April 2006
Featuring: Sheridan Gilley, Frances Knight, Simon Skinner
Heaven
Melvyn Bragg discusses heaven and the afterlife, from Ancient Egypt, Zoroastrianism and Judaism through to Christianity, the arch promoter of heaven.
22 December 2005
Featuring: Valery Rees, Martin Palmer, John Carey
Greyfriars and Blackfriars
Melvyn Bragg discusses the religious orders of the Dominicans and the Franciscans, the Blackfriars and Greyfriars, who were a great force for change in Catholic Europe.
10 November 2005
Featuring: Henrietta Leyser, Alexander Murray, Anthony Kenny
Paganism in the Renaissance
Melvyn Bragg discusses paganism in the Renaissance and the return of classical pagan thought to Italy and then to the rest of Europe in the 15th century.
16 June 2005
Featuring: Thomas Healy, Charles Hope, Evelyn Welch
Abelard and Heloise
Melvyn Bragg discusses the story of Abelard and Heloise, a medieval tale of literature and philosophy, love and scandal in the high Middle Ages.
5 May 2005
Featuring: A. C. Grayling, Henrietta Leyser, Michael Clanchy
Angels
Melvyn Bragg discusses the heavenly host of Angels, so popular with so many believers and so problematic for philosophers and theologians.
24 March 2005
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Valery Rees, John Haldane
The Venerable Bede
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Venerable Bede, who revolutionised history and scholarship, and became adopted by Rome as the last of the founding fathers of Christian religion.
25 November 2004
Featuring: Richard Gameson, Sarah Foot, Michelle Brown
ReligionAnglican saintsLutheran saintsTrope theoristsMedieval English theologiansNorthumbrian saintsChristian hagiographersDoctors of the ChurchEnglish Christian theologiansHistory of Catholicism in England, English Roman Catholic saintsAnglo-Saxon poets, Anglo-Saxon writers, 8th-century English writers, 8th-century Christian theologians, 8th-century writers in LatinZoroastrianism
Melvyn Bragg discusses Zoroastrianism, often claimed to be the world's first monotheistic religion, and known to have passed on ideas of the afterlife to Judaism.
11 November 2004
Featuring: Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Farrokh Vajifdar, Alan Williams
Witchcraft
Melvyn Bragg discusses witchcraft in Reformation Europe; misogynism or a sustained attempt by the Christian Church to root out the last of an ancient religion of Europe?
21 October 2004
Featuring: Alison Rowlands, Lyndal Roper, Malcolm Gaskill
Toleration
Melvyn Bragg discusses what had happened in England to make diverse religions ‘tolerable’. What was the philosophy and politics behind the idea of toleration, and does it differ from tolerance?
20 May 2004
Featuring: Justin Champion, David Wootton, Sarah Barber
The Fall
Melvyn Bragg discusses the idea of original sin and its impact on politics, gender and notions of morality in western culture, examining Augustine, Milton, the Masaccio frescoes and Charles Darwin.
8 April 2004
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Griselda Pollock, John Carey
The Norse Gods
Melvyn Bragg discusses the theology that inspired the Vikings and the role that myths and religion played in their daily lives.
11 March 2004
Featuring: Carolyne Larrington, Heather O'Donoghue, John Hines
The Devil
Melvyn Bragg discusses how the Devil came into being and why it took so long for him to become an established figure in Christianity.
11 December 2003
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Alison Rowlands, David Wootton
St Bartholomew's Day Massacre
Melvyn Bragg discusses the infamous St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572 when the River Seine ran red with Protestant blood.
27 November 2003
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Mark Greengrass, Penny Roberts
The Schism
Melvyn Bragg discusses events surrounding the 11th century division of medieval Christendom into what became the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
16 October 2003
Featuring: Henrietta Leyser, Norman Housley, Jonathan Shepard
The Apocalypse
Melvyn Bragg discusses how this powerful narrative of judgement and retribution evolved, and how it still shapes our thinking on the deepest questions of morality and history.
17 July 2003
Featuring: Martin Palmer, Marina Benjamin, Justin Champion
Blood
Melvyn Bragg discusses blood from medical progress to the link to the divine and how it was used to define both Man and Messiah.
22 May 2003
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Anne Hardy, Jonathan Sawday
The Holy Grail
Melvyn Bragg discusses the sacred allure of the Holy Grail which has fascinated writers for a thousand years.
15 May 2003
Featuring: Carolyne Larrington, Jonathan Riley-Smith, Juliette Wood
Redemption
Melvyn Bragg discusses Redemption, crucial for Judeo-Christian thought but can it retain its value in a world without God?
13 March 2003
Featuring: Richard Harries, Janet Soskice, Stephen Mulhall
The Lindisfarne Gospels
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 8th century manuscripts that united the Celtic and Roman church and cultures in England, and are often seen as the first artworks of Christian Britain.
20 February 2003
Featuring: Richard Gameson, Clare Lees, Michelle Brown
Muslim Spain
Melvyn Bragg discusses Muslim Spain, a culture that lasted 700 years, from Cordoba’s golden age to the fall of Granada.
21 November 2002
Featuring: Tim Winter, Martin Palmer, Mehri Niknam
The Soul
Melvyn Bragg discusses the spectrum of ideas about the soul, the extent of human individuality, and the history of thought concerning immortality and the afterlife.
6 June 2002
Featuring: Richard Sorabji, Ruth Padel, Martin Palmer
Marriage
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the institution of marriage from ancient Greeks and Babylonian times to today, and examines how monogamy came to be the favoured mode in the West.
21 March 2002
Featuring: Janet Soskice, Frederik Pedersen, Christina Hardyment
The Buddha
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the originator of Buddhism, and examines why his teachings have now become one of the fastest growing religions of the Western world.
14 March 2002
Featuring: Peter Harvey, Kate Crosby, Mahinda Deegalle
Yeats and Mysticism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and beliefs of the Irish Poet W B Yeats and explores how a passion for magic and mysticism served and stood alongside his poetry.
31 January 2002
Featuring: Roy Foster, Warwick Gould, Brenda Maddox
CultureSonneteersNobel laureates in LiteratureModernist theatreAnglican poetsIrish male poetsFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureIrish AnglicansVictorian writersFormalist poetsAnthologistsIrish male dramatists and playwrights, Irish expatriates in France20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poets19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, Symbolist dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poetsMembers of the 1925 Seanad, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Irish occultists, Protestant Irish nationalists, Irish occult writers, Irish folklorists, Irish Dominion League, W. B. Yeats, Burials in the Republic of Ireland, People from West Kensington, William Blake scholars, People educated at The High School, Dublin, Symbolist poets, Independent members of Seanad Éireann, Members of the 1922 Seanad, Butler Yeats family, Alumni of the National College of Art and Design, Abbey Theatre, People from Sandymount, Members of the Irish Republican BrotherhoodCatharism
Melvyn Bragg examines the beliefs of the Cathars, a medieval southern European Christian sect accused of heresy, and explores why they were seen as a threat to the 13th century Catholic Church.
17 January 2002
Featuring: Malcolm Barber, Miri Rubin, Euan Cameron
Third Crusade
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Third Crusade, from death of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, to the famous encounter between Richard I and Saladin.
29 November 2001
Featuring: Jonathan Riley-Smith, Carole Hillenbrand, Tariq Ali
Humanism
Melvyn Bragg examines what happened to Humanism after its invention by Cicero in the first century BC. What does humanism actually mean and is it still a classical force in contemporary ideas?
8 February 2001
Featuring: Tony Davies, Lisa Jardine, Simon Goldhill
Science and Religion
Melvyn Bragg discusses the relationship and the areas of conflict between science and religion, and examines why mankind seeks to find all encompassing answers in these two realms.
25 January 2001
Featuring: Stephen Jay Gould, John Haldane, Hilary Rose
The Age of Doubt
Melvyn Bragg examines who or what was responsible for the spread of religious doubt over the last three centuries and discusses the role of belief in God, in modern society.
9 March 2000
Featuring: A. N. Wilson, Victoria Glendinning
Prayer
Melvyn Bragg examines the purpose and effects of prayer, and discusses whether it is an instrument of action or simply the most essential form of self analysis.
23 December 1999
Featuring: Russell Stannard, Andrew Samuels
Fundamentalism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the roots, consequences and the 20th century rise of religious fundamentalism, and examines whether it could ever develop into being politically tolerant.
22 April 1999
Featuring: Karen Armstrong, Tariq Ali
Good and Evil
Melvyn Bragg examines what the discoveries of Darwin and our knowledge of the true physiological nature and history of man has done for us in terms understanding our concepts of good and evil.
1 April 1999
Featuring: Leszek Kołakowski, Galen Strawson
Space in Religion and Science
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of thought about space, and examines whether cyberspace has introduced a new concept of space in our world or if its roots are in Einsteinian physics.
18 February 1999
Featuring: John Polkinghorne, Margaret Wertheim
