Seen & Unseen Aloud: new episode

Zeal, reform, and weaponised words.

Natalie Garrett

Natalie produces and narrates The Seen & Unseen Aloud podcast. She's an Anglican minister and a trained actor.

An enthusiastic hiker stands in front of a view down a valley, smiling and holding his backpack straps.

Simon Reeve on his travels.

This week we start with the infectious zeal of Simon Reeve's green agenda; we go to the Garrick Club with George Pitcher, comparing the vote for inclusion of women in its membership with the vote for ordaining women as priests in the Church of England; we close with Krish Kandiah's poignant telling of the parallel stories of Daniel Anjorin, Salman Rushdie and Bishop Mar Mari, highlighting the part words play in a world rife with knife crime.

Podcast

Podcasts

29 May 2024

1 min read

Holly Ordway: re-enchanting... Middle Earth

Why Tolkien’s world of hobbits, elves, wizards and warriors continues to enchant so many in our world.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

a woman seated in front a mic, looks to the left will gesturing both hands to the right.

Listen now

Holly Ordway is a scholar of English literature who is a professor at the Word on Fire Institute in the USA and Houston Christian University.

Holly has written about literary and imaginative apologetics, edited and annotated a volume of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetry, and has also gone on to publish major books on the works of one of her literary heroes JRR Tolkien. These are the award-wining Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages and the recently published book Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual biography.

Today we’ll be exploring Holly’s own journey and why Tolkien’s world of hobbits, elves, wizards and warriors continues to enchant so many in our world.

Visit Holly's web site.

There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?