New Books Network
Religion & Faith
Islamic Studies May 7, 2021

Words of Experience

Translating Islam with Carl W. Ernst

Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst and Brannon M. Wheeler

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
For more than three decades now, Carl Ernst, through his scholarship and his public engagement on the study of Islam and Muslim societies, has modeled the finest form of intellectual …

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Middle Eastern Studies May 7, 2021

Between Muslims

Religious Difference in Iraqi Kurdistan

J. Andrew Bush

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Between Muslims Religious Difference in Iraqi Kurdistan (Stanford UP, 2020) by J. Andrew Bush asks what it means to be Muslim, yet not pious, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Though Islam is …
American Studies May 6, 2021

The Common School Awakening

Religion and the Transatlantic Roots of American Public Education

David Komline

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
The origins of American public schools can help shed light on continued contemporary discussions around religion and education in American discourse. In The Common School Awakening: Religion and the Transatlantic Roots of American …
Christian Studies May 5, 2021

Who Is an Evangelical?

Thomas S. Kidd

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
News and media outlets have become especially attentive to the political leanings of a particular subset of American Protestants: the Evangelicals. Leading historian of American Christianity, Thomas S. Kidd, wrote Who …
Life Wisdom May 5, 2021

Brian Carwana on World Religions

Director of Encounter World Religions

Brian Carwana

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Why study World Religions? This podcast features words of wisdom from Dr. Brian Carawana, Founder of Encounter World Religions who advocates for widespread religious literacy. We learn core insights Dr …
Jewish Studies May 5, 2021

The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex

The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institution

Lila Corwin Berman

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
For years, American Jewish philanthropy has been celebrated as the proudest product of Jewish endeavors in the United States, its virtues extending from the local to the global, the Jewish …
History May 5, 2021

Calvin, the Bible, and History

Barbara Pitkin

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
John Calvin was known foremost for his powerful impact on the fundamental doctrines of Protestantism, and his biblical interpretation continues to attract interest and inquiry. Calvin, the Bible, and History …
Jewish Studies May 5, 2021

Songs in Dark Times

Yiddish Poetry of Struggle from Scottsboro to Palestine

Amelia M. Glaser

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Between the world wars, a generation of Jewish leftist poets reached out to other embattled peoples of the earth--Palestinian Arabs, African Americans, Spanish Republicans--in Yiddish verse. Songs in Dark Times …
Middle Eastern Studies May 5, 2021

Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life

The Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World

Jörg Matthias Determann

Hosted by Asad Dandia
The Muslim world is not commonly associated with science fiction. Religion and repression have often been blamed for a perceived lack of creativity, imagination and future-oriented thought. However, even the …
Russian and Eurasian Studies May 5, 2021

Visual Thought in Russian Religious Philosophy

Pavel Florensky's Theory of the Icon

Clemena Antonova

Hosted by Diana Dukhanova
Often referred to as “the Russian Leonardo”, religious philosopher and Orthodox parish priest Pavel Florensky was a pivotal figure in the Russian religious renaissance at the turn of the 20th …
Communications May 4, 2021

How Non-Being Haunts Being

On Possibilities, Morality, and Death Acceptance

Corey Anton

Hosted by Lee Pierce
How Non-being Haunts Being reveals how the human world is not reducible to “what is.” Human life is an open expanse of “what was” and “what will be,” “what might …
Mobilities and Methods May 3, 2021

Queer in Translation

Sexual Politics under Neoliberal Islam

Evren Savci

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
In Queer in Translation: Sexual Politics under Neoliberal Islam (Duke UP, 2021), Evren Savcı analyzes the travel and translation of Western LGBT political terminology to Turkey in order to illuminate …
Genocide Studies April 30, 2021

Dance on the Razor's Edge

Crime and Punishment in the Nazi Ghettos

Svenja Bethke

Hosted by Steven Seegel
The ghettos established by the Nazis in German-occupied Eastern Europe during the Second World War have mainly been seen as lawless spaces marked by brutality, tyranny, and the systematic murder …
Christian Studies April 30, 2021

Spiritual Direction from Dante

Volume 2: Ascending Mount Purgatory

Paul Pearson

Hosted by Michael Morales
Although Dante’s Divine Comedy is a masterpiece of spiritual writing, it is seldom appreciated as such since most readers never venture beyond the first volume, Inferno, to continue the spiritual journey …
Islamic Studies April 30, 2021

Esoteric Islam in Modern French Thought

Massignon, Corbin, Jambet

Ziad Elmarsafy

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
In his new book Esoteric Islam in Modern French Thought: Massignon, Corbin, Jambet (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2021) Ziad Elmarsafy maps the intellectual and personal genealogies of three French specialists of …
Indian Religions April 30, 2021

Land of the Golden River

The Medieval Tamil Folk Epic of Poṉṉivaḷa Nāḍu

Brenda Beck

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
This podcast features Brenda Beck’s lifelong work on the Tamil folk epic Ponnivala. In addition to her forthcoming new English translation of the epic (“Land of the Golden River”), we …
Indian Religions April 30, 2021

Teaching Buddhist Studies Online

A Discussion with Kate Hartmann

Kate Hartmann

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Join Raj Balkaran as he talks with Dr. Kate Hartmann, Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Wyoming and Director of Buddhist Studies Online, a new educational platform …
World Christianity April 30, 2021

Understanding Korean Christianity

Grassroot Perspectives on Causes, Culture, and Responses

K. Kale Yu

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi
The cultural landscape plays a momentous role in the transmission of Christianity. Consequently, the global expansion of the church has led to the increasing diversification of world Christianity. As a …
Indian Religions April 28, 2021

Regional Communities of Devotion in South Asia

Insiders, Outsiders, and Interlopers

Gil Ben-Herut and Jon Keune

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Gil Ben-Herut and Jon Keune's book Regional Communities of Devotion in South Asia: Insiders, Outsiders, and Interlopers (Routledge, 2019) explores the key motif of the religious Other in devotional (bhakti) literatures …
Life Wisdom April 28, 2021

Bhante Saranapala on Kindness

The Urban Buddhist Monk

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
What does wisdom have to do with kindness? This podcast features words of wisdom form Bhante Saranapala, also known as The Urban Buddhist Monk. An International Monk, Teacher, and Speaker …