New Books Network Podcast

Christian Studies December 2, 2023

Crucified

The Christian Invention of the Jewish Executioners of Jesus

J. Christopher Edwards

Hosted by Zalman Newfield

In his book Crucified: The Christian Invention of the Jewish Executioners of Jesus (Fortress Press, 2023), J. Christopher Edwards explores the early Christian teachings regarding who actually killed Jesus. Historians …

World Christianity November 15, 2023

Cambodian Evangelicalism

Cosmological Hope and Diasporic Resilience

Briana L. Wong

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi

The Cambodian Civil War and genocide of the late 1960s and ’70s left the country and its diaspora with long-lasting trauma that continues to reverberate through the community. In Cambodian …

World Christianity October 22, 2023

At the Frontier of God's Empire

A Missionary Odyssey in Modern China

Ji Li

Hosted by Shu Wan

To a lively cast of international players that shaped Manchuria during the early twentieth century, At the Frontier of God's Empire: A Missionary Odyssey in Modern China (Oxford UP, 2023) …

World Christianity October 16, 2023

Women in World Christianity

Building and Sustaining a Global Movement

Gina A. Zurlo

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi

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Gina A. Zurlo's book Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023) is the first textbook to focus on women’s experiences in the founding, spread, and continuation of …

Christian Studies September 9, 2023

Robert Louis Stevenson and the Pacific

The Transformation of Global Christianity

L. M. Ratnapalan

Hosted by Joseph Gaines

How does Robert Louis Stevenson’s engagement with Pacific Islands cultures demonstrate processes of inculturation and the transformation of global Christianity? L. M. Ratnapalan's book Robert Louis Stevenson and the Pacific: The …

Indian Religions September 7, 2023

Between Hindu and Christian

Khrist Bhaktas, Catholics, and the Negotiation of Devotion in Banaras

Kerry P. C. San Chirico

Hosted by Raj Balkaran

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On the second Saturday of each month, on the outskirts of the ancient city of Varanasi, Shiva's own city, thousands of shudra and Dalit devotees worship Yesu (Jesus) at a …

Latin American Studies August 16, 2023

If I Give My Soul

Faith Behind Bars in Rio de Janeiro

Andrew Johnson

Hosted by Ethan Fredrick

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Pentecostal Christianity is flourishing inside the prisons of Rio de Janeiro. To find out why, Andrew Johnson dug deep into the prisons themselves. He began by spending two weeks living …

World Christianity August 5, 2023

Birthing Revival

Women and Mission in Nineteenth-Century France

Michèle Miller Sigg

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi

The nineteenth century witnessed a flurry of evangelical and missionary activity in Europe and North America. This was an era of renewed piety and intense zeal spanning denominations and countries …

Religion July 28, 2023

Like a Fiery Meteor

The Life of Joseph F. Smith

Stephen C. Taysom

Hosted by Joseph Stuart

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Joseph F. Smith was born in 1838 to Hyrum Smith and Mary Fielding Smith. Six years later both his father and his uncle, Joseph Smith Jr., the founding prophet of …

East Asian Studies July 20, 2023

Truly Human

Indigeneity and Indigenous Resurgence on Formosa

Scott E. Simon

Hosted by Anthony Kao

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Asian Review of Books June 22, 2023

The White Mosque

A Memoir

Sofia Samatar

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

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In the late 19th century, a group of Mennonites leave Russia for what is now Uzbekistan. Driven out by Russian demands that the pacifist group make themselves available for conscription …

Buddhist Studies June 19, 2023

Baptizing Burma

Religious Change in the Last Buddhist Kingdom

Alexandra Kaloyanides

Hosted by Tricycle Magazine

In July 1813, a young American couple from Boston arrived in the Buddhist kingdom of Burma to preach the gospel. Although Burmese Buddhists largely resisted Christian evangelism, members of minority …

Christian Studies May 27, 2023

A Revolutionary Faith

Liberation Theology Between Public Religion and Public Reason

Raúl E. Zegarra Medina

Hosted by Adrian Guiu

Religious commitments can be a powerful engine for progressive social change. In A Revolutionary Faith: Liberation Theology Between Public Religion and Public Reason (Stanford UP, 2023), Raúl E. Zegarra examines the …

Japanese Studies May 16, 2023

Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan

Garrett L. Washington

Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Garrett Washington’s Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan (Hawai’i 2022) brings a fresh perspective to the question of Protestant Christianity’s outsized influence in modernizing Japan from almost the …

South Asian Studies May 14, 2023

Choral Voices

Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality

Sebanti Chatterjee

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer

Sebanti Chatterjee's book Choral Voices: Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality (Bloomsbury, 2023) is about sacred and secular choirs in Goa and Shillong across churches, seminaries, schools, auditoriums, classrooms, reality TV …

Indian Religions May 4, 2023

Saint Joseph in South India

Poetry, Mission and Theology in Costanzo Gioseffo Beschi's Tēmpāvaṇi

Francis Xavier Clooney

Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Costanzo Gioseffo Beschi was an Italian Jesuit who worked in South India from 1710 to 1747. A brilliant scholar of Tamil, his works include hymns, instructions for catechists, and a …

World Christianity May 1, 2023

South Asia's Christians

Between Hindu and Muslim

Chandra Mallampalli

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi

South Asia is home to more than a billion Hindus and half a billion Muslims. But the region is also home to substantial Christian communities, some dating almost to the …

Latin American Studies April 29, 2023

Liberationist Christianity in Argentina (1930-1983)

Faith and Revolution

Pablo Bradbury

Hosted by Roland Clark

How did liberationist Christianity develop in Argentina between the 1930s and early 1970s? And how did it respond to state terrorism during the Dirty War? How did liberation theology develop …

Catholic Studies April 29, 2023

Mediating Catholicism

Religion and Media in Global Catholic Imaginaries

Eric Hoenes del Pinal, Marc Roscoe Loustau, and Kristin Norget

Hosted by Lauren Griffin

In Mediating Catholicism: Religion and Media in Global Catholic Imaginaries (Bloomsbury, 2022), the authors and the three editors (Eric Hones del Pinal, Marc Rosco Loustau and Kristin Norget) explore how …

World Christianity March 5, 2023

A Spirit of Revitalization

Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya

Kyama M. Mugambi

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi

Perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, Africa has generated unique expressions of Christianity that have, in their rapid development, overtaken older forms of Christianity represented by historic missionary …