Past and Present

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 BBC Radio 4.