The consolation of philosophy and stories

The Roman statesman Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy around the year 524 when he was incarcerated. It advises that fame and wealth are transitory and explores the nature of happiness and belief. Former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway has been wrestling with the way we understand belief. He joins Professor Seth Lerer and New Generation Thinker Kylie Murray in a discussion chaired by Matthew Sweet.

Richard Holloway's new book is called Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe. Dr Kylie Murray, Fellow in English and Scottish Literature at Cambridge who has identified a Boethius manuscript as Scotland's oldest non-biblical book. Her own book The Making of the Scottish Dream-Vision is out shortly. Seth Lerer is Distinguished Professor and as Dean of Arts and Humanities at UC, Sand Diego and his books include Shakespeare's Lyric Stage, Inventing English A Portable History of the Language, Childrens' Literature A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter and Boethius and Dialogue.

You can find more conversations about religious belief from guests including Mona Siddiqui, Karen Armstrong, Richard Dawkins, Rabbi Sachs in this playlist https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp And a Free Thinking playlist on Philosophy includes discussions about St Augustine, Nietzsche, Camus, Isiah Berlin, Bryan Magee, Mary Midgely and Iris Murdoch https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000r9b

Producer: Robyn Read