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Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle

Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle: Episode 5: Mysteries Not Problems

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Episode 5

Episode 5: Mysteries Not Problems

Mysteries Not Problems

BBC Radio 4 - Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle, Mysteries Not Problems

Richard looks at the meaning of the word mystery and the work of three medieval mystics.

Richard Holloway discusses the meaning of the word mystery and looks at the work and inner conflict of three leading medieval mystics.

Richard Holloway, the writer and former Bishop of Edinburgh, continues his series of 20 personal essays in which he explores the relationship between faith and doubt over the last 3000 years. With his main focus on the Judeo-Christian tradition, he takes the listener from the birth of religious thinking, through the Old and New Testaments, to the developments in subsequent centuries and their influence on thinkers and writers, up to the present-day. 

In today's programme Richard Holloway discusses the meaning of the word 'mystery'. He says "Words like mystery and mystical don't suggest a problem to be cleared out of the way but a reality that is veiled or concealed. In talking about them, we're talking about experiences in which we're involved but which we're unable fully to comprehend."

In discussing the medieval mystics he suggests that, unlike the shallow end of a swimming pool where all the noise is, it's at 'the deep end of the pool, the silent end' that the mystics operate. 

He looks at the work and inner conflict of three leading mediaeval mystics. Two are from the Christian tradition - Meister Eckhart, a radical fourteenth century Dominican preacher and Hildegard of Bingen, a thirteenth century German abbess, ecologist, poet and composer. The third mystic is from the Sufi tradition - Al Ghazzali, a writer and legal scholar and one of Islam's greatest theologians.

With contributions from historian Karen Armstrong; Revd David Jasper, Professor of Theology and Literature at Glasgow University and author of The Sacred Desert, and Carole Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic Studies at Edinburgh University. 


Producer: Olivia Landsberg
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.

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Richard Holloway presents a series on the relationship between faith and doubt

Richard Holloway, writer and former Bishop of Edinburgh, presents a series of personal essays on the relationship between faith and doubt over the last 3,000 years

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