Religion

Religion

episodes

Interviews with scholars of religion about their new books.

Karen Pechilis et al. ed., "Devotional Visualities: Seeing Bhakti in Indic Material Cultures" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

May 9, 2024

Devotional Visualities

Karen Pechilis, Amy-Ruth Holt et al. ed.
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Devotional Visualities: Seeing Bhakti in Indic Material Cultures (Bloomsbury, 2023) is the first to focus on material visualities of bhakti imagery th…

Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha, "Vodou en Vogue: Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States" (UNC Press, 2023)

May 7, 2024

Vodou en Vogue

Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha
Hosted by Reighan Gillam

In Haitian Vodou, spirits impact Black practitioners' everyday lives, tightly connecting the sacred and the secular. As Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha reveals…

Richard M. Jaffe, "Seeking Sakyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism" (U Chicago Press, 2019)

May 5, 2024

Seeking Sakyamuni

Richard M. Jaffe
Hosted by Samee Siddiqui

Though fascinated with the land of their tradition’s birth, virtually no Japanese Buddhists visited the Indian subcontinent before the nineteenth cent…

Zahra Ayubi, "Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Family, and Society" (Columbia UP, 2019)

May 4, 2024

Gendered Morality

Zahra Ayubi
Hosted by Shobhana Xavier

How are notions of justice and equality constructed in Islamic virtue ethics (akhlaq)? How are Islamic virtue ethics gendered, despite their venture i…

Reiki and the Subtle Body, with Justin B. Stein

May 4, 2024

Reiki and the Subtle Body

Justin B. Stein
Hosted by Pierce Salguero

Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Justin B. Stein, a specialist in modern Japanese religion and the preeminent historian of Reiki. We discuss Justin’s…

Kenneth R. Valpey, "Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

April 30, 2024

Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics

Kenneth R. Valpey
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

What does cow care in India have to offer modern Western discourse animal ethics? Why are cows treated with such reverence in the Indian context? Join…

Markus Vinzent, "Resetting the Origins of Christianity: A New Theory of Sources and Beginnings" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

April 30, 2024

Resetting the Origins of Christianity

Markus Vinzent

How do we know what we know about the origins of the Christian religion? Neither its founder, nor the Apostles, nor Paul left any written accounts of …

John O'Brien, "States of Intoxication: The Place of Alcohol in Civilisation" (Routledge, 2018)

April 29, 2024

States of Intoxication

John O'Brien
Hosted by Lucas Richert

Is alcohol a universal feature of human society? Why is it problematic in some countries and not others? How did alcohol help build the modern state? …

Purushottama Bilimoria et al., "Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration" (Routledge, 2023)

April 25, 2024

Contemplative Studies and Jainism

Purushottama Bilimoria, Cogen Bohanec, and Rita D. Sherma
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration (Routledge, 2023) is one of the first wide-ranging academic surveys of the maj…

M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence, "The Qur'an: A Verse Translation" (Liveright, 2024)

April 23, 2024

The Qur'an

M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In their landmark new translation of the Qur’an, The Qur’an: A Verse Translation (LIveright, 2024), M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence translate the…

Vaia Touna and Richard Newton, "Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

April 21, 2024

Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion

Vaia Touna and Richard Newton
Hosted by Jacob Barrett

Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists (Bloomsbury, 2023) introduces students to the so-called classics of the f…

Arsalan Khan, "The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan" (Cornell UP, 2024)

April 19, 2024

The Promise of Piety

Arsalan Khan
Hosted by Shobhana Xavier

The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan (Cornell University Press, 2024) by Arsalan Khan is an incisive ethnographic s…

Philip Freeman, "Two Lives of Saint Brigid" (Four Courts Press, 2024)

April 17, 2024

Two Lives of Saint Brigid

Philip Freeman
Hosted by Crawford Gribben

St. Brigid is the earliest and best-known of the female saints of Ireland. In the generation after St. Patrick, she established a monastery for men an…

Sharrona Pearl, "Mask" (Bloombury, 2024)

April 14, 2024

Mask

Sharrona Pearl
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

From the theatre mask and masquerade to the masked criminal and the rise of facial recognition software, masks have long performed as an instrument fo…

Jae Hee Han, "Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

April 13, 2024

Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East

Jae Hee Han
Hosted by Michael Motia

In Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East (Cambridge UP, 2023), Jae Han investigates how various Late Antique Near Eastern communities—Je…

M. Cooper Minister and Sarah J. Bloesch, "Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Methods" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

April 13, 2024

Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion

M. Cooper Minister and Sarah J. Bloesch
Hosted by Jacob Barrett

Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Method (Bloomsbury, 2023) examines the analytic tools of scholars in religio…

Tantra: A New Understanding

April 10, 2024

Tantra: A New Understanding

Gavin Flood
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Professor Gavin Flood of Oxford University discusses new insights on tantra to be released in an upcoming publication stemming from his Continuing Stu…

Xiaofei Kang, "Enchanted Revolution: Ghosts, Shamans, and Gender Politics in Chinese Communist Propaganda, 1942-1953" (Oxford UP, 2023)

April 9, 2024

Enchanted Revolution

Xiaofei Kang
Hosted by Yadong Li

China’s communist revolution has an intricate relationship with gender and religion. In Enchanted Revolution: Ghosts, Shamans, and Gender Politics in …

Psychedelics, Mysticism, Aliens, and the Dao (Pierce Salguero and Dominic Steavu)

April 8, 2024

Psychedelics, Mysticism, Aliens, and the Dao

Dominic Steavu
Hosted by Pierce Salguero

Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Dominic Steavu, a historian of Chinese religion and healing from UC Santa Barbara. We discuss the central role of th…

Annika Schmeding, "Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan" (Stanford UP, 2023)

April 7, 2024

Sufi Civilities

Annika Schmeding
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

Annika Schmeding’s new book Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan (Stanford UP, 2023) is a deeply sensitive and ric…