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The Reith Lectures

The Four Freedoms

2. Freedom of Worship

Duration: 1 hour, 11 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, gives the second of the 2022 Reith Lectures, discussing faith and liberty. In his lecture, he cites Lord Acton, the 19th Century thinker on freedom, who said that religious freedom is the basis of all political freedom. Williams addresses this with reference to South Africa and today's controversies around the abortion debate. He argues that for religious believers, freedom of worship must mean the freedom to express conviction, not just the freedom to meet.

The lecture and question-and-answer session is recorded at Swansea University in front of an audience. The presenter is Anita Anand.

The year's series was inspired by President Franklin D Roosevelt's four freedoms speech of 1941 and asks what this terrain means now. It features four different lecturers:

Freedom of Speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:
Freedom to Worship by Rowan Williams
Freedom from Want by Darren McGarvey
Freedom from Fear by Fiona Hill

Producer: Jim Frank
Sound Engineers: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill
Production Coordinators: Brenda Brown
Editor: Hugh Levinson Show less

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