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NB Religion

A podcast about Religion. Part of the New Books Network. Interviews with scholars of religion about their new books.

30/06/2022

OPEN HEARTS, CLOSED DOORS: Immigration Reform and the Waning of Mainline Protestantism (NYU Press) uncovers the largely overlooked role that liberal Protestants played in fostering cultural diversity in America and pushing for new immigration laws during the forty years following the passage of the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924. These efforts resulted in the complete reshaping of the US cultural and religious landscape.

During this period, mainline Protestants contributed to the national debate over immigration policy and joined the charge for immigration reform, advocating for a more diverse pool of newcomers. They were successful in their efforts, and in 1965 the quota system based on race and national origin was abolished. But their activism had unintended consequences, because the liberal immigration policies they supported helped to end over three centuries of white Protestant dominance in American society.

Yet, Pruitt argues, in losing their cultural supremacy, mainline Protestants were able to reassess their mission. They rolled back more strident forms of xenophobia, substantively altering the face of mainline Protestantism and laying foundations for their responses to today’s immigration debates. More than just a historical portrait, this volume is a timely reminder of the power of religious influence in political matters. Listen in 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/open-hearts-closed-doors

30/06/2022

In SUBVERSIVE HABITS: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle (Duke University Press), Shannen Dee Williams provides the first full history of Black Catholic nuns in the United States, hailing them as the forgotten prophets of Catholicism and democracy. Drawing on oral histories and previously sealed Church records, Williams demonstrates how master narratives of women's religious life and Catholic commitments to racial and gender justice fundamentally change when the lives and experiences of African American nuns are taken seriously. For Black Catholic women and girls, embracing the celibate religious state constituted a radical act of resistance to white supremacy and the sexual terrorism built into chattel slavery and segregation. Williams shows how Black sisters--such as Sister Mary Antona Ebo, who was the only Black member of the inaugural delegation of Catholic sisters to travel to Selma, Alabama, and join the Black voting rights marches of 1965--were pioneering religious leaders, educators, healthcare professionals, desegregation foot soldiers, Black Power activists, and womanist theologians. In the process, Williams calls attention to Catholic women's religious life as a stronghold of white supremacy and racial segregation--and thus an important battleground in the long African American freedom struggle. Author-interview podcast link ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/subversive-habits

09/06/2022

Many people search for heavenly bliss on earth, allured by all the world has to offer. In Paradiso, the third volume of his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, Dante corrects our lack of vision, showing us that heavenly paradise is more real and fulfilling than anything we have experienced or even dreamt of here on earth.

On this episode Michael Morales speaks with Father Paul Pearson about his recent book SPIRITUAL DIRECTION from DANTE: Yearning for Paradise (TAN Books), as we explore Dante’s Paradiso as an invitation to eternal happiness. Father Paul Pearson was ordained to priesthood in 1985 and serves as Dean of Saint Philip’s seminary run by the Oratorians in Toronto. Hear him on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/spiritual-direction-from-dante-yearning-for-paradisevolume-3

09/06/2022

Although Buddhism is one of the religious traditions best known for asserting rebirth, the history and scope of Buddhist approaches to the idea has not received comprehensive treatment—until now. This first-ever guide to ideas and practices surrounding rebirth in Buddhism covers the historical context for the Buddha’s teachings on the topic, explains what Buddhists believe is actually reborn and where, surveys rebirth-related practices in multiple Buddhist cultures, and considers whether all Buddhist traditions agree about what happens after death. Roger R. Jackson's book REBIRTH: A Guide to Mind, Karma, and Cosmos in the Buddhist World (Shambhala Publications )is, in short, the first truly comprehensive overview of rebirth across the major Buddhist traditions, written by a leading scholar and teacher of Buddhism. Learn more on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/rebirth

30/05/2022

In GOD, GRADES, and GRADUATION: Religion's Surprising Impact on Academic Success (Oxford University Press), Ilana M. Horwitz offers a revealing and at times surprising account of how teenagers' religious upbringing influences their educational pathways from high school to college. Religious students orient their life around God so deeply that it alters how they see themselves and how they behave, inside and outside of church. Find out how as Horwitz discusses the book on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/god-grades-and-graduation

26/05/2022

In a mere 4 years, England’s monastic tradition—one of the richest in all of Europe—came to an end. The Dissolution of the Monasteries, as it’s come to be known, stands in popular consciousness as a token of religious reformation and muscular government. But the Dissolution is wrapped up in partisan narratives that have obscured the role of the religious in their own day, their perception of events, others’ perceptions of them, and the meaning and impact of their demise.

In a searching, compendious yet eminently readable study, James Clark rewrites the history of this most pivotal moment in England’s past. THE DISSOLUTION of the MONASTERIES: A New History (Yale University Press) traces in magnificent granularity the world of monastic England, the critical events of 1536-40, and the landscape left behind when the last monastic bells rang across country granges and city throughways. Check out Clark's NBN interview 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-dissolution-of-the-monasteries

24/05/2022

An interdisciplinary collection in the new field of environmental humanities, CHINESE ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: Religions, Ontologies, and Practices (Rowman & Littlefield) brings together Chinese environmental ethics, religious ontology, and religious practice to explore how traditional Chinese religio-environmental ethics are actually put into social practice both in China’s past and present. It also examines how Chinese religious teachings offer a wealth of resources to the environmental project of forging new ontologies for humans co-existing with other living beings. Delve deeper into the volume on the podcast ⬇️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/chinese-environmental-ethics

20/05/2022

In the early 20th century, Khunu Lama journeyed across Tibet and India, meeting Buddhist masters while sometimes living, so his students say, on cold porridge and water. Yet this elusive wandering renunciant became a revered teacher of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. At Khunu Lama’s death in 1977, he was mourned by Himalayan nuns, Tibetan lamas, and American meditators alike. The many surviving stories about him reveal significant dimensions of Tibetan Buddhism, shedding new light on questions of religious affect and memory to reimagine cultural continuity beyond the binary of traditional and modern.

In RENUNCIATION and LONGING: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Himalayan Buddhist Saint (University of Chicago Press), Annabella Pitkin explores intersecting imaginaries of devotion, renunciation, and the teacher-student lineage relationship. By examining narrative accounts of the life of a remarkable Himalayan Buddhist and focusing on his remembered identity as a renunciant bodhisattva, Pitkin illuminates Tibetan and Himalayan practices of memory, affective connection, and mourning. Learn more on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/renunciation-and-longing

16/05/2022

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN MUSLIM: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11 (Broadleaf Books) describes how narratives of 9/11 and the war on terror have been constructed over the last 20 years and the various ways in which they have justified state violence against Muslims. Maha Hilal offers answers to many questions, including and especially how the war on terror started, what its impact on American Muslims and Muslims abroad has been, and how to work to dismantle it. Give Hilal's NBN interview a listen ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/innocent-until-proven-muslim

12/05/2022

In HOLY SCIENCE: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism (University of Washington Press), Banu Subramaniam examines how science and religion have come together to propel a vision of the modern Indian nation, and in particular, a Hindu nationalist vision of India. Subramaniam demonstrates that the politics of gender, race, class, caste, sexuality, and indigeneity are deeply implicated in the projects and narratives of the nation. Give the author's NBN interview a listen ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/holy-science

09/05/2022

In Poland in the 1940s and '50s, a new kind of Catholic intended to remake European social and political life--not with guns, but French philosophy.

Piotr H. Kosicki's CATHOLICS on the BARRICADES: Poland, France, and 'Revolution,' 1891-1956 (Yale University Press) examines generations of deeply religious thinkers whose faith drove them into public life, including Karol Wojtyla, future Pope John Paul II, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the future prime minister who would dismantle Poland's Communist regime.

Seeking to change the way we understand the Catholic Church, World War II, the Cold War, and communism, this study centers on the idea of "revolution" and examines two crucial countries, France and Poland, while challenging conventional wisdom among historians and introducing innovations in periodization, geography, and methodology. Give the author's NBN interview a listen 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/catholics-on-the-barricades

28/04/2022

On July 9, 2011, South Sudan celebrated its independence as the world's newest nation, an occasion that the country's Christian leaders claimed had been foretold in the Book of Isaiah. The Bible provided a foundation through which the South Sudanese could distinguish themselves from the Arab and Muslim Sudanese to the north and understand themselves as a spiritual community now freed from their oppressors. Less than 3 years later, however, new conflicts emerged along ethnic lines within South Sudan, belying the liberation theology that had supposedly reached its climactic conclusion with independence. In CHOSEN PEOPLES: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan (Duke University Press), Christopher Tounsel investigates the centrality of Christian worldviews to the ideological construction of South Sudan and the inability of shared religion to prevent conflict. Exploring the creation of a colonial-era mission school to halt Islam's spread up the Nile, the centrality of biblical language in South Sudanese propaganda during the Second Civil War (1983--2005), and postindependence transformations of religious thought in the face of ethnic warfare, Tounsel highlights the potential and limitations of deploying race and Christian theology to unify South Sudan. Delve deeper on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/chosen-peoples

28/04/2022

João B. Chaves THE GLOBAL MISSION of the JIM CROW SOUTH: Southern Baptist Missionaries and the Shaping of Latin American Evangelicalism (Mercer University Press) analyzes the first hundred years of Southern Baptist missionary activity in Brazil to reveal how the racialized practices of Southern Baptist Convention missionaries in the largest Latin America country shaped aspects of Latin American evangelicalism in general and the Brazilian Baptist Convention in particular. Although Latin American evangelicalism is a diverse movement both in its Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal manifestations, historians have tended to overlook the power of US evangelicalism in the establishment and maintenance of the evangelicalism in the region, preferring to offer sharp distinctions between the US-based "evangelical" movement and Latin American "evangélicos." Learn more as Chaves joins us on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-global-mission-of-the-jim-crow-south

22/04/2022

Michael Graziano’s intriguing book fuses two landmark titles in American history: Perry Miller’s Errand into the Wilderness (1956), about the religious worldview of the early Massachusetts colonists, and David Martin’s Wilderness of Mirrors (1980), about the dangers and delusions inherent to the Central Intelligence Agency. Fittingly, ERRAND INTO THE WILDERNESS of MIRRORS: Religion and the History of the CIA (University of Chicago Press) investigates the dangers and delusions that ensued from the religious worldview of the early molders of the Central Intelligence Agency. Graziano argues that the religious approach to intelligence by key OSS and CIA figures like “Wild” Bill Donovan and Edward Lansdale was an essential, and overlooked, factor in establishing the agency’s concerns, methods, and understandings of the world. Delve deeper on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/errand-into-the-wilderness-of-mirrors

18/04/2022

Ibn Babawayh – also known as al-Shaykh al-Saduq – was a prominent Twelver Shi'i scholar of hadith. Writing within the first century after the vanishing of the twelfth imam, al-Saduq represents a pivotal moment in Twelver hadith literature, as this Shi'i community adjusted to a world without a visible imam and guide, a world wherein the imams could only be accessed through the text of their remembered words and deeds. George Warner's book THE WORDS of the IMAMS: Al-Shaykh Al-Saduq and the Development of Twelver Shi'i Hadith Literature (I.B. Tauris) examines the formation of Shi'i hadith literature in light of these unique dynamics, as well as giving a portrait of an important but little-studied early Twelver thinker. PODCAST LINK ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-words-of-the-imams

15/04/2022

In OWNING THE SECULAR: Religious Symbols, Culture Wars, Western Fragility (Routledge Philosophy and Religion), Matt Sheedy examines 3 case studies dealing with religious symbols and cultural identity. Drawing on theories of discourse analysis and ideology critique, this study calls attention to an evolution in how secularism, nationalism, and multiculturalism in Europe and North America are debated and understood as competing groups contest and rearrange the meaning of these terms. This is especially true in the digital age as online cultures have transformed how information is spread, how we imagine our communities, build alliances, and produce shared meaning. Listen in as Sheedy discusses the book on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/owning-the-secular-3

15/04/2022

D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966) reached global fame for his writings on Zen Buddhism. In this introduction to his theories of self, knowledge, and the world, Suzuki is presented as a Buddhist philosopher in his own right. Beginning with a biography of his life providing the historical context to his thought and discussing Suzuki's influences, THE ZEN BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY of D. T. SUZUKI: Strengths, Foibles, Intrigues, and Precision (Bloomsbury Academic) covers the Zen notion of the non-self and Suzuki's Zen view of consciousness, language, and religious truths. Offering the first complete overview of Suzuki's approach, reputation, and legacy as a philosopher, this book is for anyone interested in the philosophical relevance and development of Mahayana Buddhism today. Learn more on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-zen-buddhist-philosophy-of-d-t-suzuki

07/04/2022

Once viewed as an embarrassing superstition, the theatrical religious performances of Korean shamans--who communicate with the dead, divine the future, and become possessed--are going mainstream. Attitudes toward Korean shamanism are changing as shamanic traditions appear in staged rituals, museums, films, and television programs, as well as on the internet.

In CONTEMPORARY KOREAN SHAMANISM: From Ritual to Digital (Indiana University Press), Liora Sarfati explores this vernacular religion and practice, which includes sensory rituals using laden altars, ecstatic dance, and animal sacrifice, within South Korea's hypertechnologized society, where over 200,000 shamans are listed in professional organizations. Check out the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/contemporary-korean-shamanism

07/04/2022

In AMERICAN SHTETL: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (Princeton University Press), Nomi Stolzenberg and David Myers tell the story of how a group of pious, Yiddish-speaking Jews created a thriving insular enclave and a powerful local government in upstate New York. While rejecting the norms of mainstream American society, Kiryas Joel has been stunningly successful in creating a world apart by using the very instruments of secular political and legal power that it disavows. Listen in as Stolzenberg joins us on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/american-shtetl

23/02/2022

Eviatar Shulman's VISIONS of the BUDDHA: Creative Dimensions of Early Buddhist Scripture (Oxford University Press) offers a ground-breaking approach to the nature of the early discourses of the Buddha, the most foundational scriptures of Buddhist religion. Although the early discourses are commonly considered to be attempts to preserve the Buddha's teachings, Shulman demonstrates that these texts are full of creativity, and that their main aim is to beautify the image of the wondrous Buddha. Delve deeper on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/visions-of-the-buddha

21/02/2022

In SOLDIERS of GOD in a SECULAR WORLD: Catholic Theology and Twentieth-Century French Politics (Harvard University Press), Sarah Shortall examines the 20th century transformation of Roman Catholicism by tracing the origins and evolution of the so-called nouvelle théologie. Developed in the interwar years by French Jesuits and Dominicans, “new theology” reimagined the Church’s relationship to public life, encouraging political activism, engaging with secular philosophy, and inspiring doctrinal changes adopted by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. By recoding political statements in the ostensibly apolitical language of doctrine, priests were able to enter into debates over fascism and communism, democracy and human rights, and colonialism and nuclear war. Learn more on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/soldiers-of-god-in-a-secular-world

18/02/2022

For people in medieval England, the parish church was an integral part of their community. In GOING to CHURCH in MEDIEVAL ENGLAND (Yale University Press), Nicholas Orme describes how parish churches operated and details the roles they played in the lives of their parishioners. While there was a considerable variety of experience over the centuries and between the parishes throughout England, the basic practices in them largely remained the same. And while the English Reformation transformed the relationship between England and the Roman Catholic Church, Orme shows how some of the changes associated with it were already underway before it began, while much of what went on in parish churches remained as before. Listen in as Orme joins Mark Klobas on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/going-to-church-in-medieval-england

18/02/2022

The Rgveda contains over a 1000 hymns, addressed primarily to 3 gods: the deified ritual Fire, Agni; the war god, Indra; and Soma, who is none other than the personification of the sacred beverage soma. The hymns were sung in day-long fire rituals in which poet-priests prepared the sacred drink to empower Indra. The dominant image of Indra is that of a highly glamorized, violent, and powerful male; the three gods represent the ideals of manhood.

Listen in as Jarrod Whitaker discusses his book, STRONG ARMS and DRINKING STRENGTH: Masculinity, Violence, and the Body in Ancient India (Oxford University Press) on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/strong-arms-and-drinking-strength

15/02/2022

Probably the most well-known Chinese philosopher around the world is Kongzi, typically called by his Latinized name, “Confucius.” And yet he did not write a single book. Rather, his students collected Kongzi’s life and teachings into the Analects, a text which has become immensely influential from ancient Confucian traditions up to the current day.

In THE ANALECTS: A Guide (Oxford University Press ), Erin M. Cline argues that we should understand the Analects not only as a guide for living, or a philosophical set of sayings on ethics, but as a sacred text. Find out why as she joins us on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-analects-a-guide

26/01/2022

In THE JEWISH WORLD of ALEXANDER HAMILTON (Princeton University Press), Andrew Porwancher debunks a string of myths about the origins of this founding father to arrive at a startling conclusion: Hamilton, in all likelihood, was born and raised Jewish.

Listen in as Porwancher fills us on on his radical reassessment of Hamilton’s religious upbringing, which offers a fresh perspective on both his adult years and the country he helped forge. By setting Hamilton in the context of his Jewish world for the first time, Porwancher challenges us to rethink the life and legend of America's most enigmatic founder. PODCAST LINK 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-jewish-world-of-alexander-hamilton

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