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Secularism
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 …

Secularism

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Interviews with scholars of secularism about their new books.

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 …
Critical Theory June 16, 2022

Science and Religion

A Very Short Introduction. Second Edition

Thomas Dixon and Adam Shapiro

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Debates about science and religion are rarely out of the news. Whether it concerns what's being taught in schools, clashes between religious values and medical recommendations, or questions about how …
General History June 14, 2022

Separating Church and State

A History

Steven K. Green

Hosted by Lane Davis
In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson distilled a leading idea in the early American republic and wrote of a wall of separation between church and state. That metaphor has come down …
Secularism May 31, 2022

Inventing Secularism

The Radical Life of George Jacob Holyoake

Ray Argyle

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
Inventing Secularism: The Radical Life of George Jacob Holyoake (McFarland, 2021), by Ray Argyle is the first modern biography of the founder of Secularism, describing a transformative figure whose controversial …
Political Science May 5, 2022

The Faith of the Faithless

Experiments in Political Theology

Simon Critchley

Hosted by Mehdi Sanglaji
The return to religion has arguably become the dominant theme of contemporary culture. Somehow, the secular age seems to have been replaced by a new era where political action flows …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast May 4, 2022

Covid, 'Scientism,' and the Betrayal of the Enlightenment

Pandemic Perspectives 9

Charles Foster

Hosted by Howard Burton
In this Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to bestselling author and University of Oxford law professor Charles Foster on how the coronavirus pandemic reveals …
On Religion April 25, 2022

Sincerely Held

American Secularism and Its Believers

Charles Alistair McCrary

Hosted by Gregory Soden
"Sincerely held religious belief" is now a common phrase in discussions of American religious freedom, from opinions handed down by the US Supreme Court to local controversies. The "sincerity test" …
Intellectual History April 25, 2022

In God’s Image

The Making of the Modern World

Tomer Persico

Hosted by Yakir Englander
In God’s Image: The Making of the Modern World (Yediot Aharonot, 2021) examines the central role that the biblical idea of the “image of God” has played in the development of …
Islamic Studies April 15, 2022

Owning the Secular

Religious Symbols, Culture Wars, Western Fragility

Matt Sheedy

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In Owning the Secular: Religious Symbols, Culture Wars, Western Fragility (Routledge, 2021), Matt Sheedy, Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Bonn, Germany, examines three case studies dealing with religious …
Critical Theory April 12, 2022

Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition

Retracing the Origins of Conflict

James C. Ungureanu

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
The story of the “conflict thesis” between science and religion—the notion of perennial conflict or warfare between the two—is part of our modern self-understanding. As the story goes, John William …
Secularism April 5, 2022

Childhood, Religion and School Injustice

Karl Kitching

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
In Childhood, Religion, and School Injustice (Cork University Press, 2020), Dr. Karl Kitching examines how debates about religion and education internationally often presume the neutrality of secular education governance as …
Anthropology March 25, 2022

The Privilege of Being Banal

Art, Secularism, and Catholicism in Paris

Elayne Oliphant

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
France, officially, is a secular nation. Yet Catholicism is undeniably a monumental presence, defining the temporal and spatial rhythms of Paris. At the same time, it often fades into the …
Buddhist Studies February 10, 2022

Secularizing Buddhism

New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition

Richard Payne

Hosted by Victoria Montrose
A timely essay collection on the development and influence of secular expressions of Buddhism in the West and beyond. How do secular values impact Buddhism in the modern world? What …
The Imperfect Buddha Podcast January 28, 2022

Winton Higgins on Secularizing Buddhism

Winton Higgins

Hosted by Matthew O'Connell
In the practising life, choices must be made. Those choices occur at all levels from big picture views of the world, a whole life, and society, to the everyday choice …
Secularism December 8, 2021

The Church of Saint Thomas Paine

A Religious History of American Secularism

Leigh Eric Schmidt

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
In his new book, The Church of Saint Thomas Paine: A Religious History of American Secularism (Princeton University Press, 2021), Dr. Leigh Eric Schmidt tells the surprising story of how …
The Imperfect Buddha Podcast December 2, 2021

Stephen Batchelor on Secularizing Buddhism

Stephen Batchelor

Hosted by Matthew O'Connell
Today I speak to Stephen Batchelor, figurehead for Secular Buddhism, well known author, and Scot. I present the lovely man some of the critique aimed at his work in the …
Jewish Studies December 1, 2021

Abraham the Hebrew Believer

Secularism and Religion in the Work of Avraham Shlonsky

Rani Jaeger

Hosted by Yakir Englander
How can it be that deeply religious poetry is being written by a committed socialist, literary revolutionary and modernist? How sacredness appears in working in the field? How one can …