Francis Collins: re-enchanting wisdom

Covid, faith, polarised politics and the battle for truth.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

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Francis Collins is a physician and geneticist whose groundbreaking work has led to the discovery of the cause of cystic fibrosis among other diseases. He led the Human Genome Project which first sequenced the entire human DNA, established the science-faith organisation BioLogos, and has gone on to serve three US presidents as the director of the National Institutes of Health.

Francis’ new book is titled The Road To Wisdom: On truth, science, faith and trust and covers some of the controversies and challenges he has faced personally in his public role as a scientist and government advisor leading the USA’s Covid response during the height of the pandemic.

In the light of the 2024 presidential election Justin and Belle talk to Francis about whether we can re-enchant truth, trust and wisdom in an increasingly polarised world. Francis Collins:

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Re-enchanting

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.

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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?