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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Something Understood

Religion & Ethics

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and poetry

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Something Understood: The Boldness of Wisdom

Embracing the Classical

05/04/2015

The Boldness of Wisdom

BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, The Boldness of Wisdom

Mark Tully considers the sacrifices people have to make to become wise.

Mark Tully considers the sacrifices people have to make to become wise and discusses the feelings of success they might need to shed with Franciscan priest Richard Rohr.

Mark Tully considers the sacrifices we have to make to become wise. He discusses the imagery and meaning of the Christian Cross with Franciscan Priest, Richard Rohr, along with the outward signs of success and self esteem we might need to shed in order to lose ourselves to a greater wisdom.

Mark looks to other traditions which also speak of the barriers in our way - the props that support our egos but prevent us from becoming our true selves - with readings from the 14th century Hindu mystic Lalleshwari, and accounts of the life of the Buddha whose realisation that he had got it all wrong enabled his path to enlightenment.

The programme features poetry from TS Eliot and music from John Tavener, Nat King Cole, Chuck Daar and Alan Hovhaness, whose setting of a verse from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes includes the words, "A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine and the boldness of his face shall be changed."

So how can we hope to achieve wisdom, and from where can we find the strength to be bold in our pursuit of it, to unlearn what we know, and to abandon our certainties.


Producer: Adam Fowler
A Unique 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.

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