Beyond Belief

The Gospel According to Dylan. Sixty years ago, Bob Dylan was on stage at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester when a fan shouted "Judas!" from the audience. Giles is joined by Michael Gray, and writer, poet, philosopher, priest, and blues-singer, Malcolm Guite to discuss the spiritual side of Bob Dylan. He also speaks to Gospel legend, Regina McCrary about touring with Dylan at the height of his Chr...

Giles Fraser gets under the skin of the religious significance of tattoos. We hear from Wassim Rassouk - the owner of the oldest tattoo business in the world and head of a family business going back 27 generations. His panel are Revd Wendy Dalrymple, Canon of Ripon Cathedral who has Christian symbols tattooed on the entire length of her arms, tattoo artist and designer, Gabriel Wolff who specialis...

Giles Fraser and the panel discuss religious views on military action and how conflict is justified theologically across different faiths and contexts. They reflect on the personal story of Michael Elstub, and his journey from military service to becoming a Quaker and peace campaigner. Panel: Mandeep Kaur MBE - Sikh Chaplain to the Armed Forces Prof David Chandler - Professor of International Rela...

Giles Fraser explores Dr. Iain McGilchrist’s brain hemisphere theory, which argues that the left and right hemispheres of the brain perceive the world in radically different ways—and that modern society has become dangerously dominated by the left hemisphere’s analytical, fragmented, and controlling mode of thought. He describes how the two hemispheres of the brain perceive reality in fundamentall...

In this episode of Beyond Belief, Giles Fraser explores the deeply personal and often transformative phenomenon of religious conversion in prison. From heroin addiction and violence to spiritual awakening, we hear the raw and powerful testimony of Tony Winter, whose journey to faith began behind bars & Maliki Clique aka Ali Abdul Raheem, a former US inmate whose conversion to Islam during inca...

Giles Fraser delves into the moral and theological tensions surrounding immigration, asking whether Christian faith leads to exclusion or radical inclusion. British politician and prominent catholic Ann Widdecombe opens with a candid reflection on the limits of national capacity and the need for fair rules, citing scripture to support her belief in prioritizing care for one’s family and community....

Giles Fraser meets columnist Giles Coren, who was raised in the Jewish tradition, became an atheist and who now feels at home in a Christian church, to explore what it means to be culturally religious. Is cultural religiosity an oxymoron and totally untenable? Is it on the rise or has it always been there? Is it damaging to traditional religious practices? And, does it really matter? To examine th...

Giles Fraser meets the Revd Canon Fr Phil Harris, of the Anglican Church in North America, to discuss defending Britain’s Christian heritage. Christianity has been deployed as a tool by those who have been labelled as far-right by their opponents, or by people supporting far-right views. Is right-wing appropriation of the faith a problem that needs solving and what issues does this claim to Christ...

We hear from the volunteers serving an average of 1,500 meals a day at the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha in Hounslow and explore the significance of langar in the Sikh and wider community. Mona Siddiqui and the panel explore the role food plays in religion. Do all religious traditions have the imperative to feed the hungry? Is food the route to the soul? And, is sharing food the best way for reli...

Giles Fraser and guests hear from novelist and opinion writer Lisa Solod on her negative experience of marrying outside of her Jewish faith, and from Amy and Takbir, on how they navigate marriage between a Christian and Muslim. What if your Mr or Mrs Right doesn't share your religious tradition and values? Is interfaith marriage a problem? And, what are religious traditions doing in an increasingl...

The word hypocrite gets used with such regularity – and Jesus himself had form using the term. How did the Pharisees became a byword for hypocrisy and is it fair? Was Jesus wrong about the Pharisees? Is the view of the Pharisees changing? To discuss Giles Fraser is joined by Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt University and co-author of ‘The Pharisees’, James...

Faith based comedy is growing in popularity. Why is religion such a good source for jokes? Is God funny? And, is there anywhere with religion that you just don’t go? Dillon Mapletoft, the writer and creator of hit comedy Everyone Else Burns, explains his fundamentalist Christian upbringing and the influence it had on him writing the coming-of-age sitcom about a Manchester family who are part of a...

Giles Fraser and guests hear from authors of detective fiction, Kate Charles and Martin Edwards, on the subtle ways they weave faith into the crime puzzles in their novels. Why is religious detective fiction so popular in our increasingly secular society? Did the detective replace the priest as the one who looked into the mysteries of life and battled with good and evil? Why do religion and detect...

Mona Siddiqui and guests hear from Rev Denzil Larbi. He reflects on his cousin, Elianne Andam, who was 15 when she was fatally stabbed at a bus stop in Croydon, South London, in September 2023. He discusses their Christmases together and how the family mark Christmas without her. The panel of guests explore the complexities that often come with religious festivals especially those that come with a...

The Rev Tara Hellings, an Anglican vicar, outlines her experiences of conducting funerals at a Pet Crematorium in Winchfield, and Nurul Ain Abdul Hamid, a Muslim who runs a dog and cat shelter in Malaysia, shares her beliefs on the equality of all animals. Do animals have souls? Are all animals equal? And, how do these concepts feed into religious teachings about animals in the afterlife? To discu...

Imam Asim Hafiz, the first Muslim chaplain to the British Armed Forces and an Islamic advisor for the Ministry of Defence, who has been working with the armed forces since 2004 discusses the many changes which have seen attitudes towards his role shifting according to the political climate and Mandeep Kaur, who was appointed as the first and only Sikh Chaplain for the entire British Armed Forces,...

Giles Fraser meets Stephen Schneck, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, to explore the impact of globalisation on religious freedom. Restrictions on religious freedom are increasing. What impact has the spread of religious traditions had on freedom of belief? How does the secularisation of religion contribute? Should states be forced to adopt norms of religious rights...

In her poem 'God's Garden', Dorothy Frances Gurney writes: 'One is nearer God’s heart in a garden Than anywhere else on earth.’ Join Giles Fraser and a panel of green-fingered guests as they gather together at the Aga Khan Centre in Kings Cross to reflect on the theological significance of gardens and gardening. From Eden and Gethsemane, to the ancient Islamic gardens of Andalusia, to the Japanese...

Giles Fraser explores the parallels and overlaps between spirituality/religion and psychotherapy. Professor Josh Cohen is a psychotherapist, who believes that God can be a problematic figure in the therapy room. Joining the discussion with Giles is Dr Jeremy Holmes, British Psychiatrist and author of -The Spirit of Psychotherapy- which examines the parallels, contrasts, and overlaps between the se...

Giles Fraser hears about the revolutionary ideas of late theologian Jürgen Moltmann, whose work challenged and transformed Christian ideas of God in the twentieth century. Hamburg, July 1943. The combined might of the Allies rains bombs down on the city causing a catastrophic firestorm. A young German anti-aircraft bomber cries out to God in the midst of devastation. He would go on to be one of th...

Giles Fraser explores the place of wine in some religious traditions, as the blood of Christ, the nectar of the Greek Gods or Persian poets, to something forbidden or proscribed. We start on a balmy evening in Napa Valley, with a sea breeze blowing through the vines at Marinda Kruger's vineyard. For her, life as a viticulturalist has an intimate connection to her faith. Gisela H Kreglinger, theolo...

Street evangelist Marios Kaikitis tells Giles Fraser why he stands on Leicester Square with a sketch board trying to engage passers by with his message of Jesus Christ. And Giles explores how different religious groups, within Christianity and Islam, evangelise today. Perhaps crucially, does it work? He's joined by Daryl A Watson, a mission leader at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Sa...

Recorded live at the Bradford Literature Festival three poets join Giles Fraser to consider the relationship between poetry and the divine. Some of our most feted poets, from Rumi to John Donne, Tagore to William Blake – have found that poetry opens up a space to explore the divine. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare praised the poet’s eye, glancing ‘from heaven to earth, from earth...

Why is walking spiritual? Giles Fraser asks if the power of pilgrimage in it's destination, or along the pathway. Alice Sainsbury was recovering from a serious neurological illness when she slowly started to walk again. Step by step she found herself again through walking, and small pilgrimages near her home in Cornwall. It wasn't just a physical journey for her, but a spiritual one as well. She t...

Giles Fraser meets Hafsa Rizki, a British Muslim women who coaches women in polygamous relationships. Her husband was already married when they met and got married themselves. She doesn't like the term, but she says she is a second wife and tells Giles about why it's a successful relationship, and how it's part of her spiritual journey. Perhaps surprisingly, polygamy is 'more commonplace' than mig...