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Spirituality without God

Mark Tully asks if we need God when seeking a spiritual approach to life, or whether the concept of a deity can sometimes get in the way.

Mark Tully asks if we need God when seeking a spiritual approach to life, or whether the concept of a deity can sometimes get in the way.

Drawing from music with religious themes, including Mahler's Resurrection Symphony and John Rutter's Cantate Domino, he examines the power that the notion of God can imbue in work created by agnostics, atheists, and religious doubters. And in literature he considers Salman Rushdie's belief that art can replace God in the search for transcendence, and Iris Murdoch's view that the concepts of God and the afterlife are, in fact, anti-religious ideas.

The programme features an interview with Iris Murdoch's biographer, Peter Conradi, who discusses with Mark the role of spirituality without God, in tempering the excesses of materialism and atheism in our modern world.

The readers are Fiona Shaw and Brian Cox.

Producer: Adam Fowler
A Unique production for 麻豆社 Radio 4

28 minutes

Last on

Sun 16 May 2021 23:30
麻豆社 Radio 4

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Music Played

  • Gustav Mahler

    2nd Symphony, Ressurection

    Performer: Leonard Bernstein.
    • Mahler. Symphony No.2. Bernstein..
    • CBS Records.

  • Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

    The Mole feels the transcendental, spiritual possibilities of music and nature through a mysterious piper playing at sunrise.

  • Fleet Foxes

    Helplessness Blues

    • Helplessness Blues.
    • Bella Union.

  • Salman Rushdie 聳 Is Nothing Sacred

    Rushdie sees art as a replacement for what the love of god offers in the world of faith.

  • Eva Cassidy

    Over the Rainbow

    • Over the Rainbow (Single).
    • EMI Music.

  • The Unicorn - Iris Murdoch.

    This passage explores spiritually the prospect of death, without reference to God.

  • Hamilton Harty

    Ode to a Nightingale

    Performer: Heather Harper, Ulster Orchestra.
    • In Ireland: Harty: Orchestral Works.
    • Chandos.

  • I Wish a God Were Possible 聳 David Ignatow

    This poem is a wish for 聭an eternal sense of self聮 in believing in god.

  • Ian Marshall

    Padstow May Song

    • 21 Songs of Cornwall!.
    • Songs of Cornwall.

  • John Rutter in conversation with Alan Macfarlane

    Rutter describes his enjoyment of the church, its music and traditions, despite his atheism.

  • John Rutter

    Cantante Domino

    Performer: Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge.
    • Rutter: Requiem.
    • EMI.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 1 Jun 2014 06:05
    麻豆社 Radio 4
  • Sun 1 Jun 2014 23:30
    麻豆社 Radio 4
  • Sun 16 May 2021 06:05
    麻豆社 Radio 4
  • Sun 16 May 2021 23:30
    麻豆社 Radio 4