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Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle

Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle: Episode 9: Paying the Price

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Episode 9

Episode 9: Paying the Price

Paying the Price

BBC Radio 4 - Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle, Paying the Price

Richard Holloway discusses how religion dealt with those who paraded their doubts.

Richard discusses how religion dealt with those who paraded their doubts. Those who rethought their relationship to God were vulnerable to the inquisition and excommunication.

In a series of personal essays, Richard Holloway considers the tensions between faith and doubt over the last 3000 years. Author and former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway focuses on the Judeo-Christian tradition as 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 how religion dealt with those who paraded their doubts. Following the new ideas that sprang up during the Reformation, those who rethought their relationship to the Bible and to God were vulnerable to the inquisition and excommunication. One such thinker was Spinoza, the 17th century Dutch-Jewish philosopher whose radical views caused him to be expelled by Jewish religious leaders and his books placed on the Papal Index of Forbidden Books. Insight into the workings of the process comes from an eyewitness account of Spinoza's excommunication. 

With contributions from Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, and Nina Power, lecturer in Philosophy at Roehampton University.


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

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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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Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle

Episode 9: Paying the Price

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