Madonna: Like a Prayer

Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and Plato’s “Euthyphro” are both deal with the nature of piety.

Socrates and Madonna both seek clarity on what piety is, however, they go about it in different

ways. Madonna also expresses her conflict with the concept “piety” in “Like a Prayer”. She

expresses this conflict through the lyric, “Heaven help me”. Madonna has always been

outspoken about her religious convictions and has always questioned the Catholic creed. She

states in an interview how she is meant to believe she is born a sinner for no reason as well as

wrestling with the idea of being punished for her vices. (Stereogum, 2020). In Euthyphro,

Socrates faces a similar dilemma with regards to the nature of piety. He seems to believe that the

nature of piety is ubiquitous and constant-but difficult to discover-based on his criticisms.

Madonna wrestles with her convictions and seeks a clear answer on what to be pious is. Socrates

on the other hand uses the Socratic method to explore Euthyphro’s line of reasoning and question

the accuracy of what “piety” means when he asks, “Do you then not realize now that you are

saying that what is dear to the gods is the pious? Is this not the same as the god loved? Or is it

not?” (15c – e). Euthyphro is persuaded by Socrates to agree that if the gods find our sacrifices

satisfying, this implies that the gods themselves approve of our sacrifices. The gods' approval of

something is what makes it holy, Socrates argues, but this only takes us back to our original

position. Either the current argument is incorrect, or the prior one was incorrect. (15d – e). This

implies a contradiction making the Divine Command Theory false.

Both mediums fail to reach a conclusion with the definition of piety. Like a Prayer lyrics which

are deemed as blasphemous and leaves the audience stunned which is similar to Euthyphro’s

reaction and the end of the dialogue.

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References

The number ones: Madonna's "Like a prayer". Stereogum. (2021, July 9). Retrieved September
18, 2022, from https://www.stereogum.com/2153515/the-number-ones-madonnas-like-a-
prayer/columns/the-number-ones/