New Books Network
Religion
East Asian Studies October 18, 2021

Knotting the Banner

Ritual and Relationship in Daoist Practice

David J. Mozina

Hosted by Noelle Guiffrida
Mozina’s Knotting the Banner: Ritual and Relationship in Daoist Practice (U Hawaii Press, 2021) weaves together ethnography, textual analysis, photography, and film, inviting readers into the religious world of Daoist …

Religion

Subscribe:

Interviews with scholars of religion about their new books.

Ideas Roadshow Podcast October 12, 2021

Exploring the Sikh Tradition

Eleanor Nesbitt

Hosted by Howard Burton
Exploring the Sikh Tradition is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Eleanor Nesbitt who is Professor Emeritus of Education Studies at University of Warwick and a …
South Asian Studies October 12, 2021

Theosophy across Boundaries

Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Modern Esoteric Movement

Hans Martin Krämer and Julian Strube

Hosted by Samee Siddiqui
Theosophy across Boundaries: Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Modern Esoteric Movement (SUNY Press, 2020) brings a global history approach to the study of esotericism, highlighting the important role of …
Jewish Studies October 12, 2021

The Soul of the Mishna

Yakov Nagen

Hosted by Michael Morales
As the foundational text of the Oral Torah in Judaism, the Mishnah is generally analyzed to understand Jewish law and the workings of the halakhic system. But Yakov Nagen, in …
Islamic Studies October 8, 2021

Islam and the Devotional Object

Richard J. A. McGregor

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In Islam and the Devotional Object: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Richard J. A. McGregor, Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University, offers a history of Islamic …
Indian Religions October 7, 2021

The Rādhā Tantra

A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation

Mans Broo

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
The Rādhā Tantra is an anonymous 17th-century tantric text from Bengal. Mans Broo's The Rādhā Tantra: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation (Routledge, 2019) offers a lively picture of the meeting of …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast October 7, 2021

Turning the Mirror

A View From the East

Pankaj Mirshra

Hosted by Howard Burton
Turning the Mirror: A View From the East is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and award-winning writer Pankaj Mishra. The conversation provides behind-the-scenes insights into several …
East Asian Studies October 6, 2021

Buddhism and Modernity

Sources from Nineteenth-Century Japan

Orion Klautau and Hans Martin Krämer

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Buddhism and Modernity: Sources from Nineteenth-Century Japan (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2021) is a welcome new collection of twenty sources on modern Japanese Buddhism, translated and with introductions. The editors …
Religion October 5, 2021

PTL

The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Evangelical Empire

John Wigger

Hosted by Joseph Stuart
In 1974 Jim and Tammy Bakker launched their television show, the "PTL Club," from a former furniture store in Charlotte, N.C. with half a dozen friends. By 1987 they stood at …
Indian Ocean World October 4, 2021

Indonesians and Their Arab World

Guided Mobility Among Labor Migrants and Mecca Pilgrims

Mirjam Lücking

Hosted by Irene Promodh
Indonesians and Their Arab World: Guided Mobility Among Labor Migrants and Mecca Pilgrims (Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2021) teases out the complex, often uneasy relationship between contemporary Indonesians and the Arab …
Islamic Studies October 1, 2021

Believing in South Central

Everyday Islam in the City of Angels

Pamela J. Prickett

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Believing in South Central: Everyday Islam in the City of Angels (University of Chicago Press, 2021) by Pamela J. Prickett is an ethnographic study of an African American Muslim community …
Indian Religions September 30, 2021

The Psychology of the Yogas

Gidi Ifergan

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Gidi Ifergan's new book The Psychology of the Yogas (Equinox Publishing, 2021) explores the dissonance between the promises of the yogic quest and psychological states of crisis. Western practitioners of yoga …
Japanese Studies September 29, 2021

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions

Erica Baffelli, Fabio Rambelli, and Andrea Castiglioni

Hosted by Raditya Nuradi
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions is edited by Erica Baffelli, Fabio Rambelli, and Andrea Castiglioni published by Bloomsbury, 2021. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions offers a comprehensive overview …
Catholic Studies September 27, 2021

Follow Your Conscience

The Catholic Church and the Spirit of the Sixties

Peter Cajka

Hosted by Carlos Ruiz Martinez
What is your conscience? Is it, as Peter Cajka asks in this provocative book, “A small, still voice? A cricket perched on your shoulder? An angel and devil who compete …
Islamic Studies September 27, 2021

God's Property

Islam, Charity, and the Modern State

Nada Moumtaz

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In her phenomenal new book God’s Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State (U California Press, 2021), Nada Moumtaz charts the historical continuities and disjunctures as well contemporary paradoxes shadowing the intellectual …
Islamic Studies September 24, 2021

Sculpting the Self

Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing

Muhammad Umar Faruque

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In his painstakingly researched and splendid new book Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing (U Michigan Press, 2021), Muhammad Faruque charts and examines the multiplicity of ways in …
African Studies September 24, 2021

Islamic Scholarship in Africa

New Directions and Global Contexts

Ousmane Oumar Kane

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
In 1937, Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, travelling to Mecca to make his first hajj, encountered Egyptian scholars who couldn’t fathom that Niasse’s erudition was a product of his fully Senegalese education …
African Studies September 22, 2021

Pentecostal Republic

Religion and the Struggle for State Power in Nigeria

Ebenezer Obadare

Hosted by Sara Katz
Throughout its history, Nigeria has been plagued by religious divisions. Tensions have only intensified since the restoration of democracy in 1999, with the divide between Christian south and Muslim north …
Religion September 21, 2021

A Most Peculiar Book

The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible

Kristin Swenson

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
The Bible is not only a book but also a collection of books. It has many authors but also at the same time many editors. It has not only been …
Islamic Studies September 17, 2021

Muslims in the Movies

A Global Anthology

Kristian Petersen

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Kristian Petersen’s new edited volume Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (Ilex Foundation and Harvard University Press, 2021), introduces the subject of Muslims and film. The volume contains nineteen …