Freedom

Theologian Dr Jane Williams examines the nature and extent of human freedom.

Recalling her childhood in an Indian boarding school, Jane remembers her unhappiness as a rebellious pupil in a life controlled by bells. She explains that she saw herself "as standing in the great company of revolutionaries, demanding my freedom from the school authorities."

Her rebellion never occurred, but Jane's search for freedom continued.

In this programme, she journeys through the theories of natural selection, psychotherapy and capitalism - along with the poetry of Frost, Cummings and Milton - and discovers that "there is no place of perfect, unconstrained freedom, in which we have entirely what we want. But that does not make us automata: we do have choices about what we will serve."

Jane notes that even Jesus had to make choices. "In choosing to be the Son of God, in every action, Jesus lays aside other choices, but that does not make him less free. On the contrary, it makes him exactly who he is."

Music from Mozart, Elgar, and Prokofiev accompany her journey which culminates in John Donne's climatic poem, Batter my Heart three person'd God, which reveals that freedom is, "paradoxically, only to found in being overpowered by something worth all other kinds of choice."

Presenter: Jane Williams
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.