Heart and Soul

Michael Symmons Roberts is a Catholic who thinks his faith would be a lot worse off if it were not for atheists.

Presenter: Michael Symmons Roberts

Photo: Atheists and those who oppose religion in government gathered for a rally in Washington DC (Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

Eighty years ago, just days before the outbreak of the Second World War, a young woman, Kaethe Berliner, fled Nazi Germany. She made a new life in Great Britain and like many others was determined to leave the evils of Nazi Germany firmly behind her.

Naomi Scherbel-Ball is the granddaughter of Kaethe Berliner, and after years of deliberation, she has decided to reopen that door to the past. Naomi will be the first in her family to apply to reclaim German nationality and she is being joined by thousands of descendants of German Jewish refugees doing the same.

Despite the revival of both religious and secular German Judaism, the recent success of the far-right has awakened old fears. Has contemporary Germany changed enough for descendants of Jewish refugees to overcome the tragedy of the past?

Picture credit: BBC

An estimated 95% of the native forest has already lost in northern Ethiopia, yet from the sky it has always been possible to see small green circles of hope across the country – the church forests of Ethiopia. Kalkidan Yibeltal travels to Bahir Dar to meet a man whose faith has led him to a lifetime working to preserve these oasis of calm and fertility. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church teaches the value of nature and the small forests surrounding each place of worship offer sanctity and healing for the communities they serve.

We join Dr Alemayehu as he enters the sanctuary of the forest and learn of his passionate hope is that these forests can flourish and be connected – perhaps with corridors alongside rivers and streams – to give wildlife the greatest possible chance to thrive. He finds both sadness and joy as he strives to protect the last of Ethiopia’s native forest.

The Holy Monastery of the Honorable Forerunner hosts a unique community of Orthodox nuns from across the globe that have made the 500-year-old mountain monastery in Greece their home.

(Photo: Orthodox nuns work the land at The Holy Monastery of the Honorable Forerunner, Mount Kissavos, Greece, with kind permission from the monastery)

Manika Bébhinn Ramsay’s husband, Alastair, died suddenly in 2007. Walking along an ancient pilgrim path, St.Kevin’s Way in County Wicklow, Bébhinn recalls the horror of coping with a sudden bereavement and tells presenter Regan Hutchins how pilgrimages helped her to cope with her grief and how they have brought a new meaning to her life.

These old Ways of the Saints are being restored as increasing numbers of people - believers and non-believers alike - seek them out.

We hear how paths such as St.Kevin’s Way, are being organised to reach increasing numbers of pilgrims and tourists alike and how they open up some of the hidden treasures of the Irish countryside. Spirituality is at the heart of these routes and the practice of walking along them has brought strength and peace to travellers across the centuries.

Producer: Regan Hutchins

(Photo: Group of pilgrims at Glendalough. Credit: Patricia Murphy )

This year is the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo Da Vinci and marks that start of a major series of international exhibitions celebrating his life and work. In this edition of Heart and Soul we’ll explore the creation and continuing impact of one of the most important and famous religious paintings in the world – Leonardo’s masterpiece – The Last Supper.

Da Vinci began The Last Supper around 1495, the fact that it’s survived more than 500 years is a miracle in itself. Da Vinci used a new technique to create vibrant and life-like portraits of Jesus and his disciples, but from the start it required contestant retouching. Various invading armies have abused it and even tried to cut the plaster down to take as a trophy. A century ago the painting was in such poor repair that it was feared it would be lost completely, but still it endured, fragile but undiminished and more than 300,000 people a year queue for strictly limited tickets to see it.

Art historian Elizabeth Lev tells the story of The Last Supper and decodes the religious imagery that has so entranced the world. Da Vinci has depicted a seminal moment in religious faith and history. Jesus is seen reaching for the bread and wine – this was the first Eucharist – arguably the birth of Christianity. The Last Supper ushered in the Renaissance and changed forever the way artists portray the relationship between Man and God.

But it is an image that is hugely symbolic to Christians around the word and Elizabeth speaks to the tattoo artist who spends hours etching it faithfully onto the body parts of people and the Mexican worshipper who shares how people around her have the image on the walls of their houses to remind themselves of the Last Supper.

Presenter: Elizabeth Lev

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Colin Brazier is a Catholic and with six children, has long promoted the benefits of a large family. Colin looks at this very personal issue and examines what part religion plays in how many children makes a family

Colin meets a Jewish family who have chosen to have a large family and a Christian who has decided that she would have just one child for the sake of the environment

Presenter: Colin Brazier

Being hung from tall trees on sharp hooks attached to flesh and piercing body parts with hot iron rods; it's a painful, almost sadistic way of praying for the harvest from the Hindu god Shiva in West Bengal to be a good one.

Sahar hears how the faith in Shiva's power is so earnest, but that the evidence is that global warming is having a powerful and deadly affect on the farmers here. They tell her that many thousands of rural workers have committed suicide after their crops have been ruined.

Produced and Presented by Sahar Zand

There has always been a synergy between spirituality and space, even before man first escaped the boundaries of our home planet. Once they did, astronauts in orbit reported feelings of awe and wonder. Viewing the Earth from on high, they were transfixed by the magic such a perspective brings.

Astronaut Charlie Walker, one of the crew of the space shuttle Discovery, takes a close-up look at the phenomenon that’s become known as the 'overview effect'. It was writer Frank White who first coined the term, describing it as ‘a cognitive shift in awareness’ - a meditative or even spiritual experience. You can see it in the brain, as neuroscientist Dr Andrew Newburgh reveals.

On returning to Earth, astronauts talk of a deep desire to make the world a better place, to engage with others and make full use of the powers that being part of an elite few has given them. What if we could all experience the overview effect? With commercial space flights and state of the art terrestrial technology, it could soon become a reality.

Views from the heavens have been described as a cosmic wake up call, a reminder we're all travelling on 'spaceship Earth' together. Charlie Walker explores whether it could be the key to a more caring, sharing world.

Image: The Earth as seen from the International Space Station (Credit: Tim Peake/ESA/Nasa)

Rwanda has been remembering the 100 days of Genocide which led to hundreds of thousands of its people were slaughtered.

Twenty five years on from that and to mark the end of the 100 days of mourning, Audrey Brown tells the story of a relatively unknown result of that time – the rise in Islam in Rwanda. She will hear how in the worst days of the genocide, Muslims shielded, saved and harbored Tutsis as they were chased down by Hutus. At that time, there were just a handful of Muslims here but now its estimated that Muslims make up 10% of this country.

This is in contrast to Christian churches, and Audrey hears how they were complicit in many thousands of deaths and she meets the Muslims who were so affected by what they witnessed in 1994 that they converted from Christianity to Islam

Produced and Presented by Audrey Brown