New Books Network
Religion
World Christianity July 28, 2021

Imagining Persecution

Why American Christians Believe There Is a Global War Against Their Faith

Jason Bruner

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi
Many American Christians have come to understand their relationship to other Christian denominations and traditions through the lens of religious persecution. Jason Bruner's Imagining Persecution: Why American Christians Believe There …

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Jewish Studies July 27, 2021

Nahmanides

Law and Mysticism

Moshe Halbertal

Hosted by Michael Morales
Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (1194–1270), known in English as Nahmanides and by the acronym the Ramban, was one of the most creative kabbalists, one of the deepest and most original …
Secularism July 26, 2021

Dangerous Games

What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds

Joseph P. Laycock

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
The 1980s saw the peak of a moral panic over fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. A coalition of moral entrepreneurs that included representatives from the Christian Right …
Islamic Studies July 23, 2021

Narrative Pasts

The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, C. 1400-1650

Jyoti Gulati Balachandran

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Jyoti Gulati Balachandran's Narrative Pasts: The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, c. 1400-1650 (Oxford University Press, 2020) explores the complex power of Sufi texts in creating Muslim communities in …
Indian Religions July 22, 2021

A Conversation with Greg Bailey

Sanskrit Scholar and Novelist

Greg Bailey

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
This interview features a candid conversation with Greg Bailey, seasoned scholar of Sanskrit narrative Literature, on his multi-decade work on the Purāṇas and Mahābhārata, and on his new novel In Search of Bliss …
Philosophy July 20, 2021

Buddhist Feminism

Transforming Anger against Patriarchy

Sokthan Yeng

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
How can Buddhism and feminism be brought together in a constructive way to challenge patriarchial structures? What could such a philosophy say about anger over injustice and oppression? In Buddhist …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 16, 2021

Cultural Disjunctions

Post-Traditional Jewish Identities

Paul Mendes-Flohr

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The identity of contemporary Jews is multifaceted, no longer necessarily defined by an observance of the Torah and God’s commandments. Indeed, the Jews of modernity are no longer exclusively Jewish …
Islamic Studies July 16, 2021

Islam Through Objects

Anna Bigelow et al.

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Islam through Objects (Bloomsbury, 2021) represents the state of the field of Islamic material cultural studies. With contributions from scholars of religion, anthropologists, art historians, folklorists, historians, and other disciplines …
Indian Religions July 15, 2021

Translating Wisdom

Hindu-Muslim Intellectual Interactions in Early Modern South Asia

Shankar Nair

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
During the height of Muslim power in Mughal South Asia, Hindu and Muslim scholars worked collaboratively to translate a large body of Hindu Sanskrit texts into the Persian language. Translating …
Jewish Studies July 14, 2021

Lamentations

Faith in a Turbulent World

Yael Ziegler

Hosted by Michael Morales
The Biblical book of Lamentations contains a whirlwind of emotional responses to tragedy and suffering—expressing anger, doubt, and confusion—and yet its central message is one of deep hope and trust …
Folklore July 13, 2021

Sacred Disobedience

A Jungian Analysis of the Saga of Pan and the Devil

Sharon L. Coggan

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Pan plays a central role in European mythology, originating as a figure who represented all that was impossible to tame in the world, something anyone who has ever worked with …
World Christianity July 12, 2021

World Christianity

Methodological Considerations

Martha Theodora Frederiks and Dorottya Nagy

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi
World Christianity publications proliferate but the issue of methodology has received little attention. World Christianity: Methodological Considerations (Brill, 2020) addresses this lacuna and explores the methodological ramifications of the World Christianity turn …
Jewish Studies July 9, 2021

Fragile Finitude

A Jewish Hermeneutical Theology

Michael Fishbane

Hosted by David Gottlieb
Perhaps no scholar has exerted a more decisive influence on the study of Jewish thought and theology over the past half century than Michael Fishbane. Continuing his recent engagement with …
Religion July 9, 2021

Ashkenazi Herbalism

Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews

Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel

Hosted by Diana Dukhanova
Until now, the herbal traditions of the Ashkenazi people have remained unexplored and shrouded in mystery. Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews (North Atlantic Books, 2021) …
Jewish Studies July 8, 2021

Talks on the Parasha

Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz

Hosted by Michael Morales
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (11 July 1937 – 7 August 2020), an Israeli Chabad Chasidic rabbi, teacher, philosopher, author, and translator, has been compared to Rashi and Maimonides in terms …
Christian Studies July 8, 2021

The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Nicaea

Young Richard Kim

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
Every Sunday, Christians all over the world recite the Nicene Creed as a confession of faith. While most do not know the details of the controversy that led to its …
Christian Studies July 7, 2021

Font of Pardon and New Life

John Calvin and the Efficacy of Baptism

Lyle D Bierma

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
Lyle D. Bierma's Font of Pardon and New Life: John Calvin and the Efficacy of Baptism (Oxford UP, 2021) is a study of the historical development and impact of John …
Christian Studies July 6, 2021

Christian Minimalism

Simple Steps for Abundant Living

Becca Ehrlich

Hosted by Meg Gambino
Christian Minimalism: Simple Steps for Abundant Living (Morehouse, 2021), written by Becca Ehrlich was published in 2021 by Morehouse Publishing Inc. In this practical and scripturally based book, Ehrlich not …
Secularism June 28, 2021

Godless Fictions in the Eighteenth Century

A Literary History of Atheism

James Reeves

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
Although there were no self-avowed British atheists before the 1780s, authors including Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Sarah Fielding, Phebe Gibbes, and William Cowper worried extensively about atheism's dystopian possibilities and …
Jewish Studies June 25, 2021

Polacos in Argentina

Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture

Mariusz Kalczewiak

Hosted by Max Kaiser
In Polacos in Argentina: Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture (University of Alabama Press, 2020), Dr. Mariusz Kałczewiak, senior research associate and lecturer in the …