Author, Christian and historian Tom Holland explores the tensions that arise from presenting different versions of the same person through faith and historical narratives. If one account depicts Christ the son of God, the divine figure, how can this be reconciled with a separate account of Jesus of Nazareth, the man?

Join Tom as he considers various faith-based and historical narratives, looking at the accounts of different faith figures, who they were and what they did, and what happens to those accounts when held up against historical documents and archaeological records. How does the presentation differ, and how can the conflict inherent in these comparisons be resolved? Does it even need to be?

Get closer with Tom as he talks about this complex, nuanced idea with Nick Baines, author, serial tweeter and Bishop of Leeds; and author and educator Abdul-Rehman Malik.

Contributors

Tom Holland

Tom Holland is the author of ‘Rubicon’, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2004; ‘Persian Fire’, which won the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award 2006; and the highly acclaimed ‘Millennium’ and ‘In the Shadow of the Sword’. He has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio.

Bishop Nick Baines

Nick Baines is the Bishop of Leeds. He’s an author (of six books), a broadcaster, blogger and tweeter (with 15K followers), and is a member of the House of Lords. He was previously Bishop of Bradford, Bishop of Croydon, and a Russian linguist at GCHQ (after reading German and French at Bradford University).

Abdul-Rehman Malik

Abdul-Rehman Malik is a journalist, educator and organiser. He contributes to national and international publications and is a regular panelist on the BBC World Service’s Weekend World Today show; his ‘Pause for Thought’ radio column also airs regularly on BBC Radio 2. He works with young people in exploring Muslim identity through drama and is a speaker on faith issues.