New Books in Religion

New Books in Religion

Author: New Books Network Language: English Episodes: 50
For anyone curious about the ideas shaping contemporary faith and practice, New Books in Religion offers a direct line to the scholars doing the work. This podcast, part of the wider New Books Network, functions as an ongoing, accessible seminar where authors detail their latest publications in conversation with informed peers. Each episode delves into a specific text, moving beyond summary to explore the author's motivations, research challenges, and the broader implications of their findings for understanding spirituality, ritual, history, and belief. The discussions are substantive yet approachable, designed to illuminate complex topics without sacrificing depth. You'll encounter a diverse range of subjects, from historical analyses of ancient traditions to contemporary explorations of ethics, mysticism, and social justice within various religious contexts. It's an opportunity to eavesdrop on genuine academic exchange, discovering new authors and pressing questions at the intersection of faith and scholarship. The entire New Books Network library, with its impressive collection of interviews across more than one hundred fifty channels, supports this mission of public education. By focusing on the nuanced conversations behind each new book, this channel provides listeners with a rich, intellectual resource for engaging with the dynamic field of religious studies. Tune in to hear the thinkers defining the current discourse explain their work in their own words.
Episodes
A Very Jewish Christmas: When Jesus Spoke Yiddish [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:54
It is a curious fact that among the first Yiddish books ever printed was a translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1540, only 18 years after Luther's famous translation (which it shamelessly cribbed). In the…
Why the Roman Empire Fell: On Edward Gibbon with Hugh Liebert [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:41
250 years ago when the United States declared independence, Edward Gibbon across the ocean published the first volume of his magisterial series, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Immediately his text caused a sto…