The Essay: Talking about Silence

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Talking about Silence: The Wild Track

Talking about Silence

The Wild Track

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Talking about Silence, The Wild Track

Diarmaid MacCulloch explores the 'wild track' of Christian silences.

Diarmaid MacCulloch explores how although silence is built into the foundation of Christian history, it has taken a multitude of 'wild track' byways over 2,000 years.

'Talking about Silence' is a personal pilgrimage around an enjoyable paradox: that you can understand silence better if you talk about it. In his new series of essays, Diarmaid MacCulloch explores the many varieties of spiritual silence in human life and beyond, and what he's learned of its meanings in his six-decade career as a historian of religion. 

In this essay, Diarmaid MacCulloch introduces us to the concept of the 'Wild Track' of the TV or radio interview, whose rationale in recording silence is that every silence is different and has its own personality. Diarmaid’s life-long research into the history of Christianity has helped him listen to the 'wild-track' of Christian silences, and how Christians have changed their minds on the subject of silence over time. In fact, the first Christians had little respect for silence: they experienced their God in noise. But in seeking to understand their disasters, they gradually saw how they might find their God in profound silence. Jesus’ life, as portrayed by the Gospel writers, is punctuated by meaningful silence. So, says Diarmaid, silence is built into the foundation of Christian history, and it has taken a multitude of wild-track byways over two thousand years.

Producer Melissa FitzGerald
A Blakeway Production

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Diarmaid MacCulloch explores the many varieties of spiritual silence.

Diarmaid MacCulloch explores the many varieties of spiritual silence in human life and beyond, and what he's learned of its meanings in his career as a historian of religion.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Essay

Talking about Silence

The Wild Track

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3