Programme Details

Presenter - Paul Allen
Producer - Anthony Denslow
Broadcast Assistant - Collette Cunningham

Night Waves comes from Liverpool as part of Radio 3's evening of performances and events marking the centenary of the city's Anglican Cathedral.


In the one hundred years of the Cathedral's life it seems that the country has undergone an astonishing spiritual transformation. Millions of people are losing their Christian roots and are bringing or accepting new religious ideas to this country from around the world, and especially from the East.


Paul Allen and guests discuss the massive and sometimes confusing influence that the East has played in the recent spiritual life of Britain . What have we learnt from the East? How deeply have these ideas taken root? Or are we still in thrall to the exoticism of the East and merely appropriating ideas and practices as smart life style choices?

Joining Paul Allen at Liverpool Cathedral are Keith Ward , formally professor of the history and philosophy of religion, Eleanor Nesbitt who specialises in the spiritual life of young Sikhs and Hindus in Britain (and who is married into a Punjabi Hindu family), Martin Palmer, who had formidable knowledge about China and about Chinese religions including Buddhism and Taoism, and Shaunaka Rishi Das, who is that rare creature - a Western convert to Hinduism (as well as being Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies).