New Books Network Podcast

Secularism May 26, 2023

Empire and Progress in the Victorian Secularist Movement

Imagining a Secular World

Patrick J. Corbeil

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans

Empire and Progress in the Victorian Secularist Movement: Imagining a Secular World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) by Dr. Patrick Corbeil is the first extensive historical analysis of the relationship between empire …

Religion May 14, 2023

The Politics of Religious Literacy

Education and Emotion in a Secular Age

Justine Ellis

Hosted by Zalman Newfield

Religious Literacy has become a popular concept for navigating religious diversity in public life. In The Politics of Religious Literacy: Education and Emotion in a Secular Age (Brill, 2022), Justine …

Secularism April 27, 2023

Varieties of Atheism in Science

Elaine Howard Ecklund and David R. Johnson

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans

Not all atheists are New Atheists, but thanks in large part to the prominence and influence of New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens …

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast April 15, 2023

Parfit

A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality

David Edmonds

Hosted by Mark Klobas

Derek Parfit (1942-2017) is the most famous philosopher most people have never heard of. Widely regarded as one of the greatest moral thinkers of the past hundred years, Parfit was …

Secularism February 26, 2023

Nonverts

The Making of Ex-Christian America

Stephen Bullivant

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans

The United States is in the midst of a religious revolution. Or, perhaps it is better to say a non-religious revolution. Around a quarter of US adults now say they …

Secularism January 31, 2023

The Varieties of Atheism

Connecting Religion and Its Critics

David Newheiser

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans

The Varieties of Atheism: Connecting Religion and Its Critics (University of Chicago Press, 2022), edited by Professor David Newheiser reveals the diverse nonreligious experiences obscured by the combative intellectualism of …

Ministry of Ideas January 9, 2023

Secular Salvations

Can Atheists be 'Saved?'

Craig Calhoun, Sean Kelly, and Angie Thurston

Hosted by Zachary Davis

The decline of organized religion in the West has opened up new paths for individuals to pursue what once was once understood to be salvation. Guests: Craig Calhoun, President of …

Anthropology January 3, 2023

Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life

Joel Robbins

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer

Anthropological theory can radically transform our understanding of human experience and offer theologians an introduction to the interdisciplinary nature between anthropology and Christianity. Both sociocultural anthropology and theology have made …

Science, Technology, and Society January 2, 2023

Wild Experiment

Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin

Donovan O. Schaefer

Hosted by Alison Renna

In Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin (Duke UP, 2022), Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate. Drawing on science studies, philosophy …

On Religion December 13, 2022

The Varieties of Atheism

Connecting Religion and Its Critics

David Newheiser

Hosted by Gregory Soden

David Newheiser is a senior research fellow in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at Australian Catholic University. He is the author of Hope in a Secular Age: Deconstruction …

Secularism December 3, 2022

Atheism in Five Minutes

Teemu Taira

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans

Atheism in Five Minutes, by Professor Teemu Taira, is part of Equinox Publishing’s “Religion in 5 Minutes” series. It offers insights into a number of commonly held questions about the …

Japanese Studies November 30, 2022

Overseas Shinto Shrines

Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire

Karli Shimizu

Hosted by Raditya Nuradi

Through extensive use of primary resources and fieldwork, Karli Shimizu's book Overseas Shinto Shrines: Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire (Bloomsbury, 2022) examines overseas Shinto shrines and their complex role in …

Religion November 23, 2022

The Secular Imaginary

Gandhi, Nehru and the Idea(s) of India

Sushmita Nath

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer

Religion November 8, 2022

Religion, Space, and Deep Time

Lowell Gustafson, Barry Rodrigue, and David Blanks

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz

The issue of how science and religion relate to one another has been a major controversy of our age. It helped fuel the rise of the New Atheist movement in …

Secularism October 12, 2022

Make Yourselves Gods

Mormons and the Unfinished Business of American Secularism

Peter Coviello

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans

From the perspective of Protestant America, nineteenth-century Mormons were the victims of a peculiar zealotry, a population deranged––socially, sexually, even racially––by the extravagances of belief they called “religion.” Make Yourselves …

Religion October 7, 2022

The Secular Paradox

On the Religiosity of the Not Religious

Joseph Blankholm

Hosted by Joseph Stuart

For much of America’s rapidly growing secular population, religion is an inescapable source of skepticism and discomfort. It shows up in politics and in holidays, but also in common events …

Secularism September 23, 2022

Positive Atheism

Bayle, Meslier, D'Holbach, Diderot

Charles Devellenes

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans

In Positive Atheism: Bayle, Meslier, d’Holbach, Diderot (Edinburgh University Press, 2021), Dr. Charles Devellennes looks at the religious, social, and political thought of the first four thinkers of the French …

Religion July 20, 2022

Postsecular History

Political Theology and the Politics of Time

Maxwell Kennel

Hosted by David Kunsman

In this thought provoking book entitled PostSecular History: Political Theology and The Politics of Time (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Max Kennel explores how contemporary approaches to the meaning of time and history follow …

Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 7, 2022

How Religion Evolved

And Why It Endures

Robin Dunbar

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

What is the evolutionary purpose of religion, and are some individuals more inclined than others to be religious? Our species diverged from the great apes six to eight million years …

Irish Studies June 21, 2022

Representing Magic in Modern Ireland

Belief, History, Culture

Andrew Sneddon

Hosted by Aidan Beatty

Andrew Sneddon is a Lecturer in International History at Ulster University. His research explores Irish witchcraft, magic and the supernatural in a comparative framework from the medieval to the modern …