Prayer
Melvyn Bragg examines the purpose and effects of prayer, and discusses whether it is an instrument of action or simply the most essential form of self analysis.
Melvyn Bragg examines the purpose and effects of prayer. Why do people pray? What did prayer ever do, the cry goes up, for those millions upon millions of non-combatants, civilians, children, innocents, whose lives have been ended by a savage variety of brutality? Do we pray for the benefit of God or for our own sake? Is it a 聯good Christian weapon聰 as Martin Luther defined it and as Mahatma Gandhi put it 聯the most potent instrument of action聰; or is prayer simply the most essential form of self analysis? Or was Ovid right to see prayer as a way of changing the mind of God, when he wrote in The Art of Love, 聯Even the Gods are moved by the voice of entreaty聰. People have prayed since the dawn of language - but why, and has it done us any good?With Professor Russell Stannard, physicist, religious writer and author of The God Experiment; Andrew Samuels, Jungian analyst and Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex.
Last on
Broadcasts
- Thu 23 Dec 1999 09:02成人快手 Radio 4
- Thu 23 Dec 1999 21:30成人快手 Radio 4
Featured in...
Reflection
A collection of programmes looking at reflection
Hindusim
A selection of programmes relating to Hinduism
Religion—In Our Time
Discussion of religious movements and the theories and individuals behind them.
In Our Time podcasts
Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive.
The In Our Time Listeners' Top 10
If you鈥檙e new to In Our Time, this is a good place to start.
Arts and Ideas podcast
Download the best of Radio 3's Free Thinking programme.
Podcast
-
In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.