The William Temple Foundation Podcast William Temple Foundation
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- Religion & Spirituality
The William Temple Foundation Podcast curates spaces of interdisciplinary insight and debate, rooted in issues that are shaping the role of faith in public life in the 21st Century. Each series that we curate speaks to an emerging debate and invites experts to share their perspectives on it.
Our current series is 'Deep Time', which is hosted by William Temple Fellow Dr Tim Middleton. This six episode offering explores debates and questions about our world today through the lens of geological time, and shares innovative theological perspectives to inspire and challenge you.
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Deep Time. Ep6. Tim Middleton and Richard Irvine
Richard Irvine ends the series by joining the dots between geology and anthropology. Are these vast timescales ultimately dehumanising? And can we learn something about time from monastic communities?
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Deep Time Ep5. Tim Middleton and Simone Kotva
In this episode, Simone Kotva speaks about deep time, religious apocalypse, and the ‘end of the world’. She makes the case that what we believe is potentially much less important than spiritual exercises and practices of attention for encouraging ecological concern.
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Deep Time Ep4. Tim Middleton and Cecil Abungu
In this episode, Cecil Abungu explains some of the philosophy of longtermism, and how it ties in to both the effective altruism movement and the study of existential risk. He also explores a variety of African perspectives on longtermism, suggesting how western voices might learn from indigenous thought when discussing the distant future.
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Deep Time Ep3. Tim Middleton and Michelle Bastian
Michelle Bastian raises some possible concerns with deep time thinking. She introduces a wide range of different ways of thinking about time, and reflects on some of the links between time and power. Are some of the popular engagements with deep time causing more harm than good?
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Deep Time Ep 2. Tim Middleton and Manjana Milkoreit
Manjana Milkoreit discusses the importance of imagination for thinking about the future. From climate fiction to dystopian film, she digs into what such creations reveal about our current priorities in the present—and why such imaginings need to be grounded in diverse communities.
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Deep Time Ep 1. Tim Middleton and Richard Fisher
In the first episode of Deep Time: Visions of the Earth’s Future, Richard Fisher explains what ‘deep time’ is and why people have become so interested in the long-term view. From Zoroastrian fires and Shinto temples to the concept of ‘cathedral thinking’, he also unpacks some of religion’s relationship to deep time.