Writing About Faith

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2021

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Frank Skinner's A Comedian's Prayer Book the broadcaster presents a series of prayers which read like a stand-up routine exploring questions of belief. A practising Roman Catholic, Skinner's questions include the correct way of addressing God, what it means to be humble, and an unpicking of some of the metaphors used in the Bible.

Jeet Thayil was born into a Syrian Christian family in Kerala, and his latest novel, Names of the Women, imagines the New Testament from the viewpoint of the women who became followers of Jesus Christ - from Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, to Lydia of Thyatira, who is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe.

Yaa Gyasi’s second novel is called Transcendent Kingdom and it tells the story of a woman working in science who is negotiating her relationship both with her mother and with her beliefs and background.

Laurence Scott talks to these three authors about how they approached writing about faith in fiction and for a mass audience.

Producer: Emma Wallace

You can find a playlist exploring religious belief on the Free Thinking website, with speakers including Ziauddin Sardar, Richard Dawkins, Karen Armstrong, Rabbi Sacks, Marilynne Robinson, and Rowan Williams. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp

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
0:27.0	when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:32.2	Thanks for downloading this Arts and Ideas podcast.
0:35.1	I'm Lauren Scott.
0:36.4	This episode explores writing about faith.
0:39.2	Can prose capture religious miracles? And why wasn't the Bible funnier? Frank Skinner,
0:44.7	Yajasi and Jit Thiel are with me to discuss, right after this.
0:53.0	Sound of Gaming, the monthly show from BBC Radio 3, which opens up the incredible world of gaming music.
1:01.5	I'm Louise Blaine, and every month I'll be featuring some of the very best gaming scores,
1:07.6	offering insights into how the music works with the gameplay,
1:12.6	talking to composers about how they set about creating their scores. I've classic tracks, I've also got the latest new releases.
1:20.9	Subscribe to Sound of Gaming on BBC Sounds. Hello, on today's program three authors on the challenges of writing about religion.
1:48.9	If you're a person of faith, how might the ecstasies and doubts and wonders of belief translate
1:54.0	into a novel or memoir?
1:56.1	And how might it feel to read new literary versions of your sacred, ancient texts? Poet and novelist, Jeet Tyle, joins me to talk about resurrecting the lost perspectives of women in the New Testament,
2:07.6	and prize-winning writer Yajasi explores the glory that lies at the intersection of religion and science.
2:14.6	But first, the comedian and broadcaster Frank Skinner invites us to eavesdrop on his prayers.
2:20.3	In a comedian's prayer book, Skinner transcribes his intimate relationship with Roman Catholicism
2:25.4	onto the page. Throughout, he contemplates the merging of humor and holiness, tracing the crossovers
2:31.8	between a stand-up comic set and a sermon.
	...

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