New Thinking: Religion and ordinary lives

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 598 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From the experiences of Quaker wives in the seventeenth century to the samplers and bibles in the homes of workers in the Industrial Revolution - Dr Naomi Pullin from the University of Warwick, and Professor Hannah Barker of the University of Manchester join historian and New Generation Thinker Tom Charlton to compare notes on the way their research marks a shift in the way religious beliefs of past times are being studied.

Naomi Pullin is the author of Female Friends and the Making of Transatlantic Quakerism, 1650-1750 Hannah Barker is Director of the John Rylands Research Institute and Historical Advisor for the National Trust at Quarry Bank Mill and has written on family, gender and business in the Industrial Revolution.

This episode is one of a series of conversations, produced in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. You can find more on the website of the AHRC, and on the website for the Free Thinking discussion programme where there’s a playlist called New Research.

You might be interested in this Free Thinking discussion about religious divisions, puppet shows and politics in the middle of this programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000xvn There is a playlist Free Thinking explores religious belief on the programme website featuring Richard Dawkins, Simon Schama, Karen Armstrong, Shelina Janmohamed and others https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:32.0	Hello and welcome to the Arts and Ideas podcast and this edition of New Thinking,
0:36.6	a series exploring some of the freshest
0:38.3	and most exciting research in the humanities coming out of UK universities today.
0:43.4	In today's episode, we're looking at a new approach to the history of religion.
0:48.7	Not the history of popes and politicians, queens and churches, but the religious beliefs
0:53.8	that structured and
0:54.8	were structured by the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Where and how can we find these
1:00.0	traces of everyday religion? Why should we? And what indeed does it even mean historically
1:06.0	to be ordinary? I'm Tom Charlton, and joining me for this conversation are too far from ordinary guests, Dr.
1:14.3	Naomi Pollan from the University of Warwick and Professor Hannah Barker of the University
1:19.4	of Manchester.
1:20.6	Hannah, if I can turn to you first, you've worked extensively on the Industrial Revolution
1:26.6	and the urbanisation of Northern England
1:28.7	throughout the 18th and 19th century.
1:31.0	Yeah.
1:31.5	What led you to look at religion in this context?
1:35.8	It's a good question, actually.
1:37.3	I think one thing I should point out for people that are listening at home is that Naomi and I are slightly different ages,
1:43.5	and I think we could be described as a
	...

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