New Books in Religion
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.
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2451
Ari Joskowicz, “The Modernity of Others: Jewish...
In 1873, the German scientist Rudolf Virchow declared in Parliament that liberals were locked in a Kulturkampf, a “culture war” with the forces of Catholicism, which he viewed as the chief hindrance to progress and modernity.
76 min
2452
Craig Martin, “Subverting Aristotle: Religion, ...
Craig Martin‘s new book carefully traces religious arguments for and against Aristotelianism from the eleventh through the eighteenth centuries. Based on a close reading of a staggering array of primary sources, Subverting Aristotle: Religion,
67 min
2453
Brian A. Catlos, “Muslims of Medieval Latin Chr...
In the current political climate it might be easy to assume that Muslims in the ‘West’ have always been viewed in a negative light. However, when we examine the historical relationship between Muslims and their non-Muslim neighbors we find a much more ...
60 min
2454
Jacqueline E. Whitt, “Bringing God to Men: Amer...
In this original and innovative study of the American military chaplaincy, Jacqueline E. Whitt examines the institution’s challenges and struggles in the post-World War II era, with the Vietnam War acting as the fulcrum for existential change in its id...
67 min
2455
William Arnal and Russell T. McCutcheon, “The S...
What brings us together as scholars in Religious Studies? Are the various social phenomena commonly grouped together as religion really that similar? The Sacred Is the Profane: The Political Nature of “Religion” (Oxford University Press,
68 min
2456
Luke E. Harlow, “Religion, Race, and the Making...
Luke E. Harlow, Religion, Race and the Making of Confederate Kentucky, 1830-1880 (Cambridge University Press, 2014) examines the role of religion, and more specifically, conservative evangelical Protestant theology,
53 min
2457
Rachel Rinaldo, “Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Fe...
Are Islam and feminism inherently at odds? Is there a contradiction between piety and gender justice? This is the guiding theme for Rachel Rinaldo, professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, in her book Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism i...
61 min
2458
J. Matthias Determann, “Historiography in Saudi...
Saudi Arabia is, for most Westerners, a mysterious place. It’s home to one of the most conservative forms of Islam around and ruled by one of the least democratic regimes in the world. Yet it’s a great friend of the liberal, democratic Western powers,
56 min
2459
Thomas McFaul and Al Brunsting, “God is Here to...
The book discussed in this interview is God is Here to Stay: Science, Evolution, and Belief in God (Wipf and Stock, 2014) by Thomas McFaul and Al Brunsting, two authors with very different backgrounds. McFaul is a college professor specializing in phil...
54 min
2460
James Carter, “Heart of Buddha, Heart of China:...
Jay Carter‘s new book follows the life of one man as a way of opening a window into the lived history of twentieth-century China. Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a Twentieth-Century Monk (Oxford University Press,
70 min
2461
Hugh Talat Halman, “Where The Two Seas Meet” (F...
In Where The Two Seas Meet (Fons Vitae, 2013), Hugh Talat Halman unpacks one of the most provocative narratives in the Islamic tradition. In the 18th chapter of the Qur’an, Surat al-Kahf (The Cave), a mysterious figure named Khidr (the “Green Man”),
72 min
2462
Isaac Weiner, “Religion Out Loud: Religious Sou...
In 2004, the traditionally Polish-Catholic community of Hamtramck Michigan became the site of a debate over the Muslim call to prayer. Members of the Hamtramck community engaged in a contest about the appropriateness of sound and its intrusion into pub...
70 min
2463
Marci A. Hamilton, “God vs. the Gavel: Religion...
The constitution guarantees Americans freedom of religious practice and freedom from government interference in the same same. But what does religious liberty mean in practice? Does it mean that the government must permit any religious practice,
57 min
2464
Mark Levene, “The Crisis of Genocide” (Oxford U...
I imagine one of the greatest compliments an author of an historical monograph can receive is to hear that his or her book changed the way a subject is taught. I will do just that after reading Mark Levene‘s new two volume work The Crisis of Genocide (...
71 min
2465
Najam Haider, “The Origins of the Shia: Identit...
When did groups in Kufa begin forming unique identities leading to the development of Shiism? Najam Haider, professor of Religion at Barnard College of Columbia University, answers this question in his book, The Origins of Shia: Identity, Ritual,
41 min
2466
Marwa Elshakry, “Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860...
The work of Charles Darwin, together with the writing of associated scholars of society and its organs and organisms, had a particularly global reach in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Marwa Elshakry‘s new book offers a fascinating w...
58 min
2467
M. Gail Hamner, “Imaging Religion in Film: The ...
When we watch film various visual elements direct our understanding of the narrative and its meaning. The subjective position of each viewer informs their reading of images in a multitude of ways. From this perspective,
54 min
2468
Sean Anthony, “Crucifixion and Death as Spectac...
Crucifixion is one of the most widely envisioned symbols in history. So much so, that for a contemporary reader the notion almost immediately plants an image of Jesus on the cross. Sean Anthony, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Orego...
62 min
2469
Sa’diyya Shaikh, “Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: ...
Many Muslim debates regarding women are solely situated in legal or political frameworks. For example, we often find this tendency in conversations about women’s leadership in the mosque or the politics of veiling. Sa’diyya Shaikh,
53 min
2470
Vincent Goossaert and David A. Palmer, “The Rel...
Social phenomena that some people like to call ‘religion’ has long shaped Chinese culture. In the twentieth century, defining the boundaries of what constitutes ‘religion’ has been central to the construction of a modern nation.
99 min
2471
Laura Silver, “Knish: In Search of the Jewish S...
Something nice and filling for you here! Laura Silver‘s book Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food (Brandeis University Press, 2014) concerns itself not only with the round — or is it square? — savory pastry brought to America from somewhere in Euro...
2 min
2472
Greta Christina, “Coming out Atheist: How to do...
Coming out atheist isn’t always easy, but Greta Christina, atheist activist and blogger, has tips to make it easier for those who struggle. After scouring hundreds of coming-out-atheist stories, she comes to the conclusion that difficult as it may be,
43 min
2473
Zareena Grewal, “Islam is a Foreign Country: Am...
Zareena Grewal‘s monograph Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority (NYU Press, 2013), seamlessly interweaves ethnographic research with an in-depth historical perspective in order to yield an unparalleled account...
67 min
2474
Steven L. Jacobs, “Lemkin on Genocide” (Lexingt...
It’s hard to overestimate the role of Raphael Lemkin in calling the world’s attention to the crime of genocide. But for decades his name languished, as scholars and the broader public devoted their time and attention to other people and other things.
58 min
2475
John Cornwell, “The Dark Box: A Secret History ...
I’ve never been in a confessional box, but I’ve seen a lot of them in films. And if the depiction of them in films is in any way a reflection of popular attitudes toward confession, then I can say with some confidence that the act has a rather poor rep...
57 min