Help Support the NBN on Patreon | Visit New Books Network en Español!

New Books Network
Christian Studies
Madison's Notes May 31, 2023

Defining Man and Woman

A Conversation with Abigail Favale

Abigail Favale

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
Listen:
Amidst fraught debates about what gender is, and how it fits into feminism, Annika sits down with Dr. Abigail Favale, an English professor specializing in gender studies and feminist literary …

Christian Studies

Subscribe:

Interviews with scholars of Christianity about their new books.

Biblical Studies May 28, 2023

Armageddon

What the Bible Really Says about the End

Bart D. Ehrman

Hosted by Frances Sacks
A New York Times bestselling Biblical scholar, reveals why our popular understanding of the Apocalypse is all wrong—and why that matters.You’ll find nearly everything the Bible has to say about the …
Madison's Notes May 28, 2023

Martyrs in Mosul

A Conversation on Christian Persecution with Father Benedict Kiely

Father Benedict Kiely

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
With Christmas approaching, in this episode we reflect on Christian persecution in the Middle East, the historic cradle of Christianity and the birthplace of Jesus, and the very different challenges …
Christian Studies May 27, 2023

A Revolutionary Faith

Liberation Theology Between Public Religion and Public Reason

Raúl E. Zegarra Medina

Hosted by Adrian Guiu
Religious commitments can be a powerful engine for progressive social change. In A Revolutionary Faith: Liberation Theology Between Public Religion and Public Reason (Stanford UP, 2023), Raúl E. Zegarra examines the …
Medieval History May 27, 2023

Stories Between Christianity and Islam

Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond

Reyhan Durmaz

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In Stories between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond (University of California Press, 2022), Reyhan Durmaz offers an original and nuanced understanding of …
Biblical Studies May 26, 2023

Before There Was a Bible

Authorities in Early Christianity

Lee Martin McDonald

Hosted by Rob Heaton
Before There Was a Bible: Authorities in Early Christianity (T&T Clark, 2023) is a natural outgrowth from McDonald’s significant and ongoing work in the field of canon studies, which traces the …
Almost Good Catholics May 25, 2023

Down to Earth: In Pursuit of Humility

A Discussion with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn

Richard J. Foster and Brenda Quinn

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Quaker theologian Richard J. Foster and charismatic pastor Brenda Quinn talk with me about Foster’s new book (which Quinn worked on with him), Learning Humility: A Year of Searching for …
Madison's Notes May 23, 2023

After the Pill

A Conversation with Mary Eberstadt

Mary Eberstadt

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
The pill has rocked our society to its core: but have we fully examined all its repercussions? Influential author and essayist Mary Eberstadt thinks we've only scratched the surface; in …
Medieval History May 23, 2023

Rome and the Invention of the Papacy

The Liber Pontificalis

Rosamond McKitterick

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The remarkable, and permanently influential, papal history known as the Liber pontificalis shaped perceptions and the memory of Rome, the popes, and the many-layered past of both city and papacy …
Women's History May 21, 2023

Do Everything

The Biography of Frances Willard

Christopher H. Evans

Hosted by Jane Scimeca
Frances Willard (1839-1898) was one of the most prominent American social reformers of the late nineteenth century. As the long-time president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Willard built …
Almost Good Catholics May 18, 2023

Here We Stand? (with Bishop Donald Hying)

The German Bishops Challenge Catholic Social Teachings

Bishop Donald Hying

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, wrote a statement in his diocesan journal, the Madison Catholic Herald about the German Synodal Way. The German Bishops, in defiance of Pope Francis …
Japanese Studies May 16, 2023

Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan

Garrett L. Washington

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Garrett Washington’s Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan (Hawai’i 2022) brings a fresh perspective to the question of Protestant Christianity’s outsized influence in modernizing Japan from almost the …
American Studies May 16, 2023

The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics

Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding

Kody W. Cooper and Justin Buckley Dyer

Hosted by Hope J. Leman
America’s religious and political public forum is no longer confined to debates between liberals (be they Catholics or Protestants) and socially conservative evangelicals and traditional Catholics—with atheists condemning all of …
South Asian Studies May 14, 2023

Choral Voices

Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality

Sebanti Chatterjee

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
Sebanti Chatterjee's book Choral Voices: Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality (Bloomsbury, 2023) is about sacred and secular choirs in Goa and Shillong across churches, seminaries, schools, auditoriums, classrooms, reality TV …
Biblical Studies May 13, 2023

The Secret Gospel of Mark

A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate Over Its Authenticity

Geoffrey S. Smith and Brent C. Landau

Hosted by David Kunsman
In The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate Over Its Authenticity (Yale University Press, 2023), Geoffrey S. Smith and Brent C. Landau present …
Early Modern History May 11, 2023

An Artful Relic

The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy

Andrew R. Casper

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
In 1578, a fourteen-foot linen sheet bearing the faint bloodstained imprint of a human corpse was presented to tens of thousands of worshippers in Turin, Italy, as one of the …
Almost Good Catholics May 11, 2023

The Miraculous Mind (with Paul Bloom)

What Does Psychology Say about Religion and Morality?

Paul Bloom

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Psychologist Paul Bloom and I talk about the human brain, morality, empathy, perversity, all the things—including Professor Bloom’s new book, Psych: The Story of the Human Mind (Ecco Press, 2023) …
Madison's Notes May 9, 2023

Christianity and the American Founding

A Discussion with Mark David Hall

Mark David Hall

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
Questions about the nature of the American founding undergird our fraught political discourse: was the American Revolution justified? How religious were the Founding Fathers? How should we deal with the …
Biblical Studies May 9, 2023

The Letter to the Hebrews

Critical Readings

Scott D. Mackie

Hosted by Michael Morales
The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the most fascinating texts in the New Testament, having arguably the highest Christology, the most comprehensive soteriology and realized eschatology. Hebrews is …
Anthropology May 8, 2023

Between Heaven and Russia

Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia

Sarah Riccardi-Swartz

Hosted by Kendall Dinniene
How is religious conversion transforming American democracy? In one corner of Appalachia, a group of American citizens has embraced the Russian Orthodox Church and through it Putin’s New Russia. Historically …