Miracles

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the parting of the Red Sea, the feeding of the five thousand and the general subject of miracles. Miracles have been part of human culture for thousands of years. From St Augustine in the 4th century through the medieval cult of saints to David Hume in the 18th, miracles have captured the imaginations of believers and sceptics alike. The way they have been celebrated, interpreted, dissected and refuted is a whole history of arguments between philosophy, science and religion. They have also been used by the corrupt and the powerful to gain their perverse ends. Miracles have been derided and proved to be fraudulent and yet, for many, the miraculous maintain a grip on our imagination, our language and our belief to this day.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Martin Palmer 22 episodes
  Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture
• Janet Soskice 4 episodes
  Reader in Philosophical Theology at Cambridge University
• Justin Champion 11 episodes
  Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London

Related episodes

• Blood
  
  22 May, 2003 610 Medicine and health
• Man and Disease
  
  12 Dec, 2002 610 Medicine and health
• Meteorology
  
  6 Mar, 2003 550 Earth sciences and geology
• Optics
  
  1 Mar, 2007 530 Physics
• Magnetism
  
  29 Sep, 2005 530 Physics
• Medieval Pilgrimage
  
  18 Feb, 2021 260 Social and ecclesiastical theology
• Microbiology
  
  8 Mar, 2007 570 Biology
• The Holy Grail
  
  15 May, 2003 390 Customs, etiquette and folklore
• The Renaissance
  
  8 Jun, 2000 940 History of Europe
• Science’s Revelations
  
  29 Oct, 1998 500 Science

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: b00dkh78

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dkh78

Auto-category: 202.117 (Miracles)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. The parting of the Red Sea, the feeding of the 5,000, the turning of water into wine.