Shows / New Books in Religion
New Books in Religion
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/…
Episodes
- New Books in Religion
Paul Seabright, "The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People" (Princeton UP, 2024)
Religion in the twenty-first century is alive and well across the world, despite its apparent decline in North America and parts of Europe. Vigorous…
- New Books in Religion
Mick Brown, "The Nirvana Express: How the Search for Enlightenment Went West" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Mick Brown’s The Nirvana Express: How the Search for Enlightenment Went West (Oxford UP, 2023) is a riveting account about the West's engagement with Eastern…
- New Books in Religion
Simon Rabinovitch, "Sovereignty and Religious Freedom: A Jewish History" (Yale UP, 2024)
It is a common assumption that in Israel, Jews have sovereignty, and in most other places where Jews live today, they have religious freedom instead. As Simon…
- New Books in Religion
Ariel Evan Mayse, "Laws of the Spirit: Ritual, Mysticism, and the Commandments in Early Hasidism" (Stanford UP, 2024)
In Laws of the Spirit: Ritual, Mysticism, and the Commandments in Early Hasidism (Stanford UP, 2024), Ariel Evan Mayse faces up to an enduring question about…
- New Books in Religion
Lauren E. Osborne, "Hearing Islam: The Sounds of a Global Religious Tradition" (Routledge, 2024)
In Hearing Islam: The Sounds of a Global Religious Tradition, Lauren Osborne delves into the sonic dimensions of Islam, exploring how the tradition’s rich…
- New Books in Religion
Selena Wisnom, "The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
When a team of Victorian archaeologists dug into a grassy hill in Iraq, they chanced upon one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge ever seen: the…
- New Books in Religion
Patrick Beldio, "The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga" (Lexington Books, 2024)
The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Co-Creator of the Integral Yoga (Lexington Books, 2024) analyzes the contributions of the Mother (née Mirra Alfassa…
- New Books in Religion
Daemons, Tantra, and Cultural Exchange with David Gordon White
In this episode, Dr. Pierce Salguero sits down with David Gordon White, a distinguished indologist and scholar of Tantra. Our conversation focuses on David’s…
- New Books in Religion
Moshe Tzvi Wieder, "Siddur from Its Sources" (Wieder Press, 2023)
The author of Siddur from Its Sources has combed through the history of the Jewish prayer book to identify when each prayer was added. The results are…
- New Books in Religion
Anthony Grafton, "Magus: The Art of Magic from Faustus to Agrippa" (Harvard UP, 2023)
Magus: The Art of Magic from Faustus to Agrippa (Harvard UP, 2023) is a revelatory new account of the magus―the learned magician―and his place in the…
- New Books in Religion
Ethan Kleinberg, "Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Turn: Philosophy and Jewish Thought" (Stanford UP, 2021)
In this rich intellectual history of the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic lectures in Paris, Ethan Kleinberg addresses Levinas's Jewish…
- New Books in Religion
Jørgen Møller and Jonathan Doucette, "The Catholic Church and European State Formation, AD 1000-1500" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Generations of social scientists and historians have argued that the escape from empire and consequent fragmentation of power - across and within polities -…
- New Books in Religion
Manu Pillai, "Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity" (Allen Lane, 2025)
What is Hinduism? For centuries, that question was particularly thorny, both for local Indians and for colonial outsiders. People inside and outside the…
- New Books in Religion
Asim Qureshi and Walaa Quisay, "When Only God Can See: The Faith of Muslim Political Prisoners" (Pluto Press, 2024)
When Only God Can See: The Faith of Muslim Political Prisoners (Pluto Press, 2024), uncovers the unique experiences of Muslim political prisoners held in Egypt…
- New Books in Religion
Material Religion, Assemblage, and the Agency of Things in South Asia
This special issue of Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies is the product of a collective experiment with materials that are assembled, imagined…
- New Books in Religion
Religious Freedom: A Conversation on the Conservative Tradition with John D. Wilsey
In this conversation, we sit down with John D. Wilsey, Professor of Church History and Philosophy at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Senior…
- New Books in Religion
Bernard McGinn, "Modern Mystics: An Introduction" (Herder & Herder, 2023)
Mysticism is not just a phenomenon of the past, but has been alive and flourishing in Chistianity, Judaism, and Islam over the past century, as well as in many…
- New Books in Religion
Ting Guo, "Religion, Secularism, and Love As a Political Discourse in Modern China" (Amsterdam UP, 2025)
What is the meaning of love in modern Chinese politics? Why has 愛 ai (love) been a crucial political discourse for secular nationalism for generations of…
- New Books in Religion
Malka Z. Simkovich, "Letters from Home: The Creation of Diaspora in Jewish Antiquity" (Eisenbrauns, 2024)
Dr. Simkovich taught in a Catholic University and now is at JPS and YU. She continues her interfaith dialogue throughout. But here we spoke, among other…
- New Books in Religion
Tabish Khair, "Literature Against Fundamentalism" (Oxford UP, 2024)
Acclaimed novelist and academic Tabish Khair argues that literature as a distinct mode of thinking can counteract fundamentalism. Literature is a mode of…
- New Books in Religion
Andrew Jotischky, "The Monastic World: A 1,200-Year History" (Yale UP, 2024)
From the late Roman Empire onwards, monasteries and convents were a common sight throughout Europe. But who were monasteries for? What kind of people founded…
- New Books in Religion
Noa Shashar, "The Marital Knot: Agunot in the Ashkenazi Realm, 1648-1850" (Brandeis UP, 2024)
In The Marital Knot: Agunot in the Ashkenazi Realm, 1648 - 1850 (Brandeis UP, 2024), Noa Shashar sheds light on Jewish family life in the early modern era and…
- New Books in Religion
Claire C. Robison, "Bringing Krishna Back to India" (Oxford UP, 2024)
The Hare Krishnas have long been associated with American hippie culture and New Age religious movements. But they have developed deeply rooted communities in…
- New Books in Religion
Patrick Riordan, "Human Dignity and Liberal Politics: Catholic Possibilities for the Common Good" (Georgetown UP, 2023)
A deeply considered examination of the “common good” reconciling Catholic Social Thought with secular politics and philosophy. The Second Vatican Council…
- New Books in Religion
Dale C. Allison, "Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things" (Eerdmans, 2016)
When he was 23 years old, Dale Allison almost died in a car accident. That terrifying experience dramatically changed his ideas about death and the hereafter…
- New Books in Religion
William Sweet, "Before and After Democracy: Philosophy, Religion, and Politics" (Peeters, 2023)
Recognized for his work on philosophy, religion and politics, Dr. Sweet talks at length about Before and After Democracy: Philosophy, Religion, and Politics…
- New Books in Religion
Edward Simon, "The Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues: A Visual History" (Cernunnos, 2024)
A companion piece to Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology and Elysium: A Visual History of Angelology, Seven Sins and Seven Virtues (Abrams, 2024) by…
- New Books in Religion
Carola Lorea and Rosalind Hackett, "Religious Sounds Beyond the Global North: Senses, Media and Power" (Amsterdam UP, 2024)
What makes sounds “religious”? How are communities shaped by the things they hear, play, or listen to? This book foregrounds connections between sounds…
- New Books in Religion
Josef Stern, "Maimonides' "Guide of the Perplexed" in Translation: A History from the Thirteenth Century to the Twentieth" (U Chicago Press, 2019)
There is a common misconception that the Jewish religion does not believe in an afterlife. While it’s true that Judaism is focused on actions, intentions and…
- New Books in Religion
Peter J. Bowler, "Evolution for the People: Shaping Popular Ideas from Darwin to the Present" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
From Darwin's The Origin of Species to the twenty-first century, Peter Bowler reinterprets the long Darwinian Revolution by refocussing our attention on the…
- New Books in Religion
Magic, Death, and Necromancy with Justin McDaniel
**Warning: This episode contains potentially disturbing content!** On this episode of the Black Beryl, I sit down with Justin McDaniel, a scholar of Theravada…
- New Books in Religion
Angela Roskop Erisman, "The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew Bible: Religion, Politics, and Biblical Interpretation" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
What is the function of the wilderness narratives for understanding the Pentateuch and Israel and Judah’s historical experience? Drawing from literary and…
- New Books in Religion
Ayesha Jalal, "Muslim Enlightened Thought in South Asia" (Routledge, 2025)
In Ayesha Jalal’s latest work Muslim Enlightened Thought in South Asia (Routledge, 2024) readers are introduced to the “roshan khayali” (enlightened thought)…
- New Books in Religion
Cyrus Ali Zargar, "The Ethics of Karbala: Myths, Modernity, and Virtues of Nobility" (Routledge, 2024)
The Ethics of Karbala: Myths, Modernity, and Virtues of Nobility (Routledge, 2024) investigates the relationship between sacred narratives and the development…
- New Books in Religion
Shmuel Goldin, "Unlocking the Haggada: The Complete Haggada With In-Depth Commentary" (OU Press, 2018)
Who wrote the Haggada? Is there a thematic roadmap to the structure of the Seder? Why is the meal eaten in the middle of Hallel? These and many more questions…
- New Books in Religion
Anand Venkatkrishnan, "Love in the Time of Scholarship: The Bhagavata Purana in Indian Intellectual History" (Oxford UP, 2024)
Where is the "life" in scholarly life? Is it possible to find in academic writing, so often abstracted from the everyday? How might religion bridge that gap?…
- New Books in Religion
Adam Chalom and Jodi Kornfeld, "Contemporary Humanistic Judaism" (Jewish Publication Society, 2025)
In their edited volume, Contemporary Humanistic Judaism: Beliefs, Values, Practices (Jewish Publication Society, 2025), Rabbis Adam Chalom and Jodi Kornfeld…
- New Books in Religion
Stephen T. Pardue, "Why Evangelical Theology Needs the Global Church" (Baker Group, 2024)
Christian theologians and students are aware that evangelicals in the Majority World now outnumber those in North America and Europe, and many want to know…
- New Books in Religion
Gidi Ifergan, "The Discerning Clear Gaze of Yoga" (Equinox, 2024)
Gidi Ifergan's The Discerning Clear Gaze of Yoga (Equinox, 2024) explores the road map of yoga as reflected in the Yogasūtra of Patañjali (third century CE)…
- New Books in Religion
Michelle D. Brock, "Plagues of the Heart: Crisis and Covenanting in a Seventeenth-Century Scottish Town" (Manchester UP, 2024)
Using a wide range of archival material and a microhistorical approach, Plagues of the Heart: Crisis and Covenanting in a Seventeenth-Century Scottish Town…
- New Books in Religion
Rafael Rachel Neis, "When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species" (U California Press, 2023)
When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species (U California Press, 2023) investigates rabbinic treatises relating to animals…
- New Books in Religion
Alec Goldstein, "Maimonides on the Book of Exodus" (Kodesh Press, 2019)
Today I talked to Alec Goldstein about Maimonides on the Book of Exodus (Kodesh Press, 2019). Rabbi Moses son of Maimon, known in Hebrew as Rambam and in…
- New Books in Religion
Roger R. Jackson, "Saraha: Poet of Blissful Awareness" (Shambhala, 2024)
The life and works of the mysterious Indian yogin, Saraha, who has inspired Buddhist practitioners for over a thousand years. Saraha, “the Archer,” was a…
- New Books in Religion
Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, "Finding God in All the Black Places: Sacred Imaginings in Black Popular Culture" (Rutgers UP, 2024)
In Finding God in All the Black Places: Sacred Imaginings in Black Popular Culture (Rutgers UP, 2024), Beretta E. Smith-Shomade contends that Black…
- New Books in Religion
Yitzchak Etshalom, "Amos: The Genius of Prophetic Rhetoric" (Maggid, 2024)
With timeless poetry and stunning imagery, the prophet Amos of Tekoa, a simple herdsman from the Judean mountains, stands in front of a stubborn, antagonistic…
- New Books in Religion
Richard H. Davis, "Religions of Early India: A Cultural History" (Princeton UP, 2024)
From its earliest recorded history, India was a place of remarkable and varied religious activity, ranging from elaborate sacrificial rituals and rigorous…
- New Books in Religion
Alastair Gornall, "Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 1157–1270" (UCL Press, 2020)
Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 1157–1270 (UCL Press, 2020) is the first intellectual history of premodern Sri Lanka’s…
- New Books in Religion
Catherine Hezser, "Rabbinic Scholarship in the Context of Late Antique Scholasticism: The Development of the Talmud Yerushalmi" (Bloomsbury, 2024)
Based on an understanding of scholasticism as a cross-cultural phenomenon, undertaken by rabbinic, Graeco-Roman, and Christian scholars in late antiquity, this…
- New Books in Religion
Matthew C. Godfrey, ed., "The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents, Volume 7" (Church Historians Press, 2018)
Joseph Smith, the nineteenth-century American prophet who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, can, at times, be considered an elusive…
- New Books in Religion
Jonathan Sacks, "The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel: Genesis" (Koren, 2024)
The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel offers an innovative and refreshing approach to the Hebrew Bible. By fusing extraordinary findings by modern scholars on…
- New Books in Religion
Doris L. Bergen, "Between God and Hitler: Military Chaplains in Nazi Germany" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
During the Second World War, approximately 1000 Christian chaplains accompanied Wehrmacht forces wherever they went, from Poland to France, Greece, North…
- New Books in Religion
Robert D. Miller II, "Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God" (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021)
Recognizing the absence of a God named Yahweh outside of ancient Israel, this study addresses the related questions of Yahweh's origins and the biblical claim…
- New Books in Religion
Franck Salameh, "Lebanon’s Jewish Community: Fragments of Lives Arrested" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
This was an interview that I felt only scratched the surface not only of the book, Lebanon’s Jewish Community: Fragments of Lives Arrested (Palgrave Macmillan…
- New Books in Religion
Antoinette Denapoli and June McDaniel, "Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture" (MDPI, 2024)
Applying the "influencer" concept to the study of religion, Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture (MDPI…
- New Books in Religion
Farina King, "Diné dóó Gáamalii: Navajo Latter-day Saint Experiences in the Twentieth Century" (UP of Kansas, 2023)
In this deeply personal account, University of Oklahoma associate professor of Native American Studies Dr. Farina King describes the history and present of…
- New Books in Religion
Larry S. Temkin, "Being Good in a World of Need" (Oxford UP, 2022)
In a world filled with both enormous wealth and pockets of great devastation, how should the well-off respond to the world's needy? This is the urgent central…
- New Books in Religion
Markus Vinzent, "Christ's Torah: The Making of the New Testament in the Second Century" (Routledge, 2023)
Christ's Torah: The Making of the New Testament in the Second Century (Routledge, 2023) explores the creation of the collection now known as the New Testament…
- New Books in Religion
Tantra, Religious Studies, Methodology and the Practitioner-Scholar Turn
In this podcast we meet CIIS faculty member Sundari Johansen and speak about how her academic background in religious studies informs the critical perspective…
- New Books in Religion
Amélie Barras, "Faith in Rights: Christian-Inspired NGOs at Work in the United Nations" (Stanford UP, 2024)
Faith in Rights: Christian-Inspired NGOs at Work in the United Nations (Stanford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Amélie Barras explores why and how Christian…
- New Books in Religion
Jordan D. Rosenblum, "Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig" (NYU Press, 2024)
Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made by both Jews and non-Jews for more than three thousand years and is rooted in biblical…