Something Understood

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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: Easter: A Matter of Life and Death

Easter: A Matter of Life and Death

BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, Easter: A Matter of Life and Death

Master of the Temple Church, Robin Griffith-Jones, presents an Easter choral special.

Master of the Temple Church, Robin Griffith-Jones, presents an Easter special with music sung especially for the programme by the 18 voices of the Temple Church Choir.

In this Easter Sunday special episode, Master of the Temple Church, Robin Griffith-Jones, explores the fascinating parallels between the story of creation in Genesis and the Easter story as told in John's gospel.

The music is sung by the eighteen voices of the Temple Church Choir.

Robin explains that the Temple Church, an oasis of calm in the heart of the City of London for over 850 years, is the perfect place for an examination of the Easter narrative. Three hundred years after Jesus died, the Emperor Constantine rediscovered his tomb. Constantine built around it a vast circular church - The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Move on another 800 years and the Christians ruled Jerusalem. Back home in Europe, they built a handful of round churches like the Temple Church, on Fleet St in London, designed to recreate the Sepulchre's shape and so its sanctity.

Sat in the beautiful surroundings of his beloved church, with the sunlight streaming in through stained glass windows and the voices of the choir permeating the air, Robin leads us on a theological journey deep into John's gospel.

Robin describes the gospel of John as a strange and poetic text that invites us to see ourselves and the world in a new way. Robin reveals that John's Easter narrative is filled with allusions to Genesis - indeed his whole gospel can be read as the story of a new creation.

Presenter: Robin Griffith-Jones
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.

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