Saving Doubt

In a series of personal essays, Richard Holloway considers the tensions between faith and doubt over the last 3000 years. Author and former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway focuses on the Judeo-Christian tradition as he takes the listener from the birth of religious thinking, through the Old and New Testaments, to the developments in subsequent centuries and their influence on thinkers and writers, up to the present day.

In today's programme, Richard Holloway explores the theme of doubt and disloyalty with the help of three great 20th Century writers - James Joyce, Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. Holloway suggests that doubt and disloyalty help 'keep our most cherished institutions open to change and renewal'. It's a view supported by Joyce and Greene who challenged the Catholic notion of Hell and its 'eternal repetition'. But for Waugh, it was the very idea of changelessness and stability that attracted him to Catholicism. Holloway talks to Revd. Prof. David Jasper from Glasgow University about how this theme plays out in Waugh's work, while Graham Greene tells us himself why doubt and disloyalty are essential roles for the writer.

Producer: Olivia Landsberg
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.