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Mark Tully discusses the purpose of abstinence in the lead up to Lent and investigates the varied attitudes towards fasting in the major faiths.

As Lent approaches, Mark Tully discusses the purpose and effects of fasting. Why do so many faiths consider fasting so virtuous?

In conversation with the broadcaster and writer John Butt, a convert to Islam of forty-five years standing, he discusses the varied approaches to fasting in the major faiths.

With readings from Gerard Manley Hopkins and Patrick Leigh Fermor, and music ranging from Bhim Sen Joshi and The Irish Descendants to Antonin Tucapsky, he examines the pleasures and pitfalls of abstinence and self-denial.

The readers are Robert Glenister and Francis Cadder.

Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4

28 minutes

Last on

Sun 23 Feb 2020 23:30
蜜芽传媒 Radio 4

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Father and Son

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Music Played

  • GI Gurdjieff & Thomas de Hartmann

    Seekers of the Truth

    Performer: Cecil Lytle.
    • The Complete Piano Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff & Thomas de Hartmann, Vol. 1: Seekers of the Truth.
    • Celestial Harmonies.

  • The Habit of Perfection

    Gerald Manley Hopkins describes the positive energies which abstinence releases

  • Martin Herbst

    Forty Days and Forty Nights

    Performer: Charles Smart. Performer: Hervey Allan. Performer: The McCarthy Singers. Performer: Geoffrey Morgan. Performer: Wilfred Brown.
    • 50 Classic Hymns by Classic FM.
    • Classic FM.

  • Bhimsen Joshi

    Jai Jagdishwari

    • Celebration Special - Navratri - Divine Chants of Ma Durga.
    • Music Today.

  • The Ladder of Perfection by Walter Hilton

    The fourteenth century mystic Walter Hilton warns against taking fasting too far.

  • Hans Heinrich Dransmann

    The Lonely Wanderer

    Performer: Orchester Filmkunst-Musikverlag.
    • Die Leuchte Asiens (The Light Of Asia) - Original Soundtrack, Kino Klassik.
    • FKM Records.

  • A Time to Keep Silence

    Novelist Patrick Leigh Fermor describes the Trappist monks聮 fierce asceticism.

  • The Irish Descendants

    Murphy Broke the Pledge

    • Johnny Burke Songbook.
    • Avondale Music.

  • The Garden of Love by William Blake

    Poet William Blake explores the joylessness that all too easily accompanies abstinence

  • To Keep a True Lent by Robert Herrick

    Poet Robert Herrick recommends that we should starve not ourselves but our sin during Lent

  • Antonin Tucapsky

    Pater Mi

    Performer: Bath Camerata directed by Nigel Perrin.
    • The Choral Music of Anton铆n Tucapsk媒.
    • Somm Recordings.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 2 Mar 2014 06:05
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 4
  • Sun 2 Mar 2014 23:30
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 4
  • Sun 23 Feb 2020 06:05
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 4
  • Sun 23 Feb 2020 23:30
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 4