麻豆约拍

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 麻豆约拍 Radio 4.