大象传媒

Award winning poet, Michael Symmons Roberts explores the deep meanings that lie behind the word 'grace' and how this and other words have lost some of their original power.

Roberts explains, 鈥渢he poet Seamus Heaney once used the phrase 鈥榯he big lightening, the emptying out鈥� to describe the thinning of our religious language, the loss of meaning in terms that once were common currency to describe theological ideas or mystical or spiritual experience鈥�.

Roberts laments the fact that words like water and wood at one time conjured images of the baptism and crucifixion of Christ, but are now more sterile and impotent. But 鈥榞race鈥� is his central theme and, through the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop and RS Thomas and the insights of the great German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he tries to restore some of the depth and wonder of a word which we have perhaps taken for granted.

Having a hit song using its most famous iteration has not helped. Roberts explains, 鈥淎mazing Grace is still one of our best known hymns鈥�but in the course of more than two centuries of singing John Newton鈥檚 story of salvation and rescue, some lines have survived better than others in retaining their power to communicate a shared experience. Anyone today could connect with the line 鈥業 once was lost, but now am found鈥�. But I suspect the same could not be said for 鈥楾was grace that taught my heart to fear, / And grace my fears reliev鈥檇.鈥�

The music in the programme includes Judy Collins, Elbow and Jeff Buckley鈥檚 famous song Grace.

Roberts concludes that it is the responsibility of all of us to restore the power of our language and generate new ways of talking about the human experience.

Presenter: Michael Symmons Roberts
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI Media production for 大象传媒 Radio 4