logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2024
45m 2s

East West religious connections

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East is the new book from New Generation Thinker and historian Christopher Harding. In Passions of the Soul, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams looks at the classics of Eastern Christian writing. At Compton Verney in Warwickshire, the artist Gayle Chong Kwan is preparing to unveil ‘shrines’ made up of newly cast bronze offerings, incorporating references to Chinese, Taoist and Buddhist cultures, as well as focusing on ideas around food, soil and the body. Rana Mitter hosts the conversation.

Producer: Julian Siddle

The Taotie runs at Compton Verney from 21 March 2024 – 31 March 2026 On the Free Thinking programme website you can find more collections of conversations exploring religious belief, and South and East Asian culture

Up next
Jul 4
Censorship, editing and self-censorship
Shahidha Bari looks at censorship, editing and self-censorship with guests including historian of China, Rana Mitter, Jemimah Steinfeld of Index on Censorship and Nigel Warburton, host of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Amelia Fairney discusses her research on sensitivity readers a ... Show More
57m 7s
Jun 27
Christian faith, politics and culture
Anne McElvoy and guests explore the intersections between Christian faith and political decision-making and look at some recent dramas which explore the impact of belief.Chine McDonald is director of the Christian Think Tank Theos, Mark Lawson is a writer, broadcaster and theatre ... Show More
56m 21s
Jun 20
Language
Journalists Peter Hitchens and Oliver Kamm, radio presenter and comedian Ellis James, languages expert Ross Perlin, Diana Sutton director of The Bell Foundation and podcaster and academic Reetika Revathy Subramanian join Matthew Sweet for a conversation about how language unites ... Show More
56m 44s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
the threads connecting eastern and western mysticism (part 3 of 5)
This marks part 3 of a 5-part series where I will read aloud chapters from Manly P. Hall's “The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones: Gnosticism, the Key to Esoteric Christianity.” In this episode, we'll be reading chapter two, “Parallels Between Eastern and Western Philosophy.” What you'l ... Show More
1h 31m
Aug 2021
Daryl R. Ireland, "John Song: Modern Chinese Christianity and the Making of a New Man" (Baylor UP, 2020)
Dubbed the "Billy Sunday of China" for the staggering number of people he led to Christ, John Song has captured the imagination of generations of readers. His story, as it became popular in the West, possessed memorable, if not necessarily true, elements: Song was converted while ... Show More
1h 44m
Nov 2022
🧙‍♂️ Alan Watts | Simple Solution To The Confusion In Your Mind | Full Lecture
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker known for interpreting and popularising Eastern philosophies of Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States ... Show More
1h 17m
Dec 2020
Anne K. Bang, "Islamic Sufi Networks in the Western Indian Ocean (c.1880-1940): Ripples of Reform" (Brill, 2014)
In the period c. 1880-1940, organized Sufism spread rapidly in the western Indian Ocean. New communities turned to Islam, and Muslim communities turned to new texts, practices, and religious leaders. On the East African coast, the orders were both a vehicle for conversion to Isla ... Show More
1h 35m
Jun 2013
Ep. 41 - Return to the West
Ram Dass realized that the Western religious traditions weren't profound enough to connect people to their inner selves, they didn't provide man with the wisdom necessary to know inner peace and fulfillment - so he traveled to the East and connected with yoga (union with God). Af ... Show More
39m 40s
Dec 2023
Nur Sobers-Khan et al., "Beyond Colonial Rupture: Print Culture and the Emergence of Muslim Modernity in Nineteenth-Century South Asia" (2023)
Scholarly discussions on Islam in print have focused predominantly on the role of Urdu in the development of North Indian Muslim publics (Dubrow, 2018; Robb, 2020), ʿulama and Islamic jurisprudence (Tareen, 2020) and relations between Islam and colonial modernity (Robinson, 2008; ... Show More
39m 21s
Nov 2020
East Meets West
The UK may have a divide north and south, but how about east and west? Chris Mason takes a virtual journey from Whitby in the east to the Lake District in the west to find out. Chris was born and brought up in the Yorkshire Dales, straddling the centre of the country, so he has h ... Show More
28m 49s
Jan 2023
Alan Watts - Myth and Religion - Not What Should Be, but What Is
Alan Watts  -  Myth and Religion - Not What Should Be, but What Is Subscribe for members only lectures and bonus content such as  meditation tracks by Alan Watts, anything he said about a certain topic  special compilations and much  more. I will post the occasional healing  freq ... Show More
54m 10s
Jan 2023
Alan Watts - Myth and Religion - Spiritual Authority
Alan Watts  -Myth and Religion - Spiritual Authority Subscribe  for members only lectures and bonus content such as  meditation tracks  by Alan Watts, anything he said about a certain topic  special  compilations and much  more. I will post the occasional healing   frequency trac ... Show More
55m 26s
Jan 2024
The West's enduring fascination with Asia
Asia has long enthralled people in the west, with voyages of discovery and military expeditions setting out in search of wealth, wisdom and the chance to explore a "strange new world". Historian and author Christopher Harding speaks to Matt Elton about westeners' enduring fascina ... Show More
50m 2s