Past and Present
Dr Jane Williams wallows in nostalgia and finds the dangers of being trapped in the past. For us to be free, she suggests, memories need to be transformed into something new.
Theologian Dr Jane Williams reminisces and finds the dangers of being trapped in the past.
She suggests that nostalgia is a powerful emotion, but not always a constructive one - looking back can make it impossible to look forward.
Memory can stifle and constrain, or it can free and enable. We can't help being shaped and formed by the past, but there is still an intriguing degree of freedom about how we face the future. Jane reflects on her times, sharing memories of a childhood spent in India with her sisters. She argues that what we create as we remember is a deeper sense of our shared past that means we trust our shared future.
Through the writings of Kafka and George Elliot, the poetry of Kavanagh and Herbert and the music of Mozart and Hildegard of Bingen, Jane reveals the God who stands fully past, present and future, yet is not constrained by them. God remembers even the future and, in God's memory, endings and beginnings are not opposites.
Presenter: Jane Williams
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI Media production for 成人快手 Radio 4.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Next
Music Played
-
![]()
Mary Hopkin
Those Were The Days
-
![]()
Franz Schubert
String Quartet in G Major
Orchestra: Belcea Quartet. -
![]()
Benjamin Britten
Simple Symphony
Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. -
![]()
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Lux Aeterna
Choir: Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge. -
![]()
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1812 Overture
-
![]()
Hildegard von Bingen
Hymnus Cum Vox Sanguinas
Performer: Tiburtina Ensemble.
Readings
Title: 听听 听听听听听听听听听听听 The Mill on the Floss
Author:听听听听听听听听听听听 George Eliot
Publisher:听 听听听听听 Penguin Classics
听
Title: 听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 听The Great Wall of China: Stories and Reflections
Author: 听听听听听听听听听听 听Franz Kafka
Publisher:听 听听听听听 听Schocken
听
Title: 听听 听听听听听听听听听听听 Heraclitus
Author: 听听听听听听听听听听 William Cory
Publisher: 听听听听听听 Oxford University Press
听
Title: 听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Collected Poems
Author: 听听听听听听听听听听 Patrick Kavanagh
Publisher: 听听听听听听 Penguin Classics
听
Title: 听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 The Collar
Author: 听听听听听听听听听听 George Herbert
Publisher: 听听听听听听 Penguin Classics
听
Broadcasts
- Sun 19 Nov 2017 06:05成人快手 Radio 4
- Sun 19 Nov 2017 23:30成人快手 Radio 4
- Sun 3 May 2020 06:05成人快手 Radio 4
- Sun 3 May 2020 23:30成人快手 Radio 4