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New Books in Religion

New Books Network

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:

religion & spirituality

All Episodes

00:56:11

The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/10/05

From their foundational era in 1097 to Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem almost a century later, the Crusader States transformed the Middle Eastern world. In an era shaped by many conflicts, this was not simply a war between Christianity and Islam, but an epic contest among multiple rival empires, dynasties, and cultures. Nicholas Morton's The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East(Pegasus, 2026) unfolds through a kaleidoscope of perspectives: a Byzantine renegade, a

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00:56:15

Let the Oppressed Go Free: Abolitionism in Colonial...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/10/01

David N. Gellman interviews Nicholas P. Wood on Let the Oppressed Go Free: Abolitionism in Colonial and Revolutionary AmericaIn Let the Oppressed Go Free, Nicholas P. Wood presents the opponents of slavery who sustained and expanded the antislavery movement during the American Revolution in the face of widespread hostility. These early abolitionists were inspired by antislavery theology: the view that slavery was a sinful form of oppression that would provoke God’s wrath against slaveholding

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00:41:46

Allama Prabhu and the Shaiva Imagination with N.S....

New Books in Religion ·

2026/10/01

Engages with the life and ideas of the twelfth-century Shaiva mystic and philosopher-poet Allama Prabhu.In his last, profoundly innovative work Allama Prabhu and the Shaiva Imagination, D. R. Nagaraj (1954-1998) engages with the twelfth-century Shaiva mystic and philosopher-poet Allama Prabhu, whose enigmatic writings have perplexed many and thus resisted analysis. Nagaraj situates Allama in three intellectual contexts: the medieval philosophical world built around the worship of Shiva; the

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00:42:27

Apocalyptic Abolitionism: How Millennialists Helped...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/27

Shows how apocalypticism helped drive anti-slavery abolitionism and inspire progressive social reform in nineteenth-century America In March 1844, Melissa Botsford of Meriden, Connecticut, defiantly left her local Methodist church because it supported slavery and other “sins” that permeated America. Botsford was among one hundred thousand other abolitionists who abandoned their evangelical churches throughout the decade. These protesters came out with a stern apocalyptic warning: God would soon

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00:42:41

Karline McLain, "Living with Gandhi: Experiments in...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/24

Mahatma Gandhi was an anticolonial activist, lawyer, and politician. Less famously, but no less importantly, he was also a back-to-the-land farmer, a founder of communes, and a seeker of utopia. Living with Gandhi: Experiments in Utopia tells the story of everyday life at four of Gandhi's communities in India and South Africa. It explores who lived at each community alongside Gandhi, the experiments they undertook in the shared pursuit of universal wellbeing, and the connections that were forged

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01:12:11

Eileen Luhr, "Golden States: How California Religion...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/21

Since the beginning of European colonization, the sun-drenched land of California has always attracted dreamers and schemers. Whether it was Spanish missionaries, Russian fur traders, or American argonauts, the myth - or perhaps brand - of California has long been a place here one's wildest dreams can come true. Starting in the late nineteenth century and accelerating in the twentieth, that myth also attracted a wide array of starry eyed spiritualists. In Golden States: How California Religion Went

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00:54:34

Emmanuel Y. Lartey, "Spiritual Care in African...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/20

In my conversation with Prof. Emmanuel Y. Lartey about his new book,Spiritual Care in African Religious Cultures: Sacred Wisdom for the Care of Persons in an Intercultural World, published by Georgetown University Press in 2026.Our conversation highlighted the importance of taking African religious worlds seriously, not merely as objects of academic study but as rich sources of knowledge about care, healing, suffering, community, spirituality, and human flourishing.Prof. Lartey’s work challenges

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01:28:33

Will Gervais, "Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/13

Does God exist? This straightforward question has spawned endless debate, ranging from apologists’ supposed proofs of God’s existence to New Atheist manifestos declaring belief in God a harmful delusion. In Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species (Prometheus Books, 2024), Will M. Gervais, a global leader in the psychological study of atheism, shows that the ubiquity of religious belief and the peculiarities of atheism are connected pieces in the puzzle of human nature.Through a

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49:51

Joseph G. Rosenstein, "Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/12

What if Pirkei Avot has a bigger story to tell? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with Joseph G. Rosenstein to discuss Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers): The Big Picture(Academic Studies Press, 2026), a fresh approach to one of Judaism’s most beloved collections of rabbinic wisdom.The 123 teachings of Pirkei Avot often seem to jump from one subject to another: Torah study, ethics, the afterlife, relationships, leadership, and the responsibilities of living a meaningful Jewish life

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86:42

Han Hsien Liew, "Preaching Pious Rulership in...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/12

Han Hsien Liew’s fascinating and insightful new book, Preaching Pious Rulership in Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Jawzi’s Political Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2026) offers a new way of understanding the political thought of one of medieval Islam’s most influential preachers, Ibn al-Jawzi. Although Ibn al-Jawzi is often remembered primarily as a preacher, moralist, and religious scholar, Han Hsien challenges conventional accounts of medieval Islamic political thought by showing how piety,

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46:18

Christopher Freeburg, "Soul: A Brief History of Black...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/11

Today’s guest, Christopher Freeburg, is the author ofSoul: A Brief History of Black Cultural Life(Yale University Press, 2026). This book explores the US history of black cultural life as a history of soul – a spiritual lived practice rooted in communally fostered music, religion, and politics. It makes the case that soul is forged through black community connections and that it’s sustained by moral principles, or pillars, which define how it is lived. The book’s four chapters are organized around

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75:14

A Nation Wrestles With God: American Prophets,...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/10

Spanning more than 400 years of spiritual transformation and imagination,A Nation Wrestles With God(Restless Books, 2026)collects diverse writers—poets, novelists, theologians, scientists, musicians, politicians, comedians, artists, mavericks, naturalists, futurists, and more—whose daring texts incited change and continue to influence a growing nation. In this anthology, you will find the stories, poems, letters, speeches, sermons, essays, song lyrics, comic strips, newspaper columns, and

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37:56

Sanjay Joshi, "Brahmins of the Himalaya: Upper-Caste...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/10

Uses the everyday histories of Brahmin clans, communities, and families in a prominent small town in the Indian Himalaya to challenge the assumption that only grand metanarratives such as colonialism and nationalism matter. This everyday history of clans, communities, and elite families in Almora, a prominent town in the Indian Himalaya, puts questions of belonging at the heart of an expansive examination of elite Hinduism. Studying a mountainous region sometimes considered marginal within Indian

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36:06

Thomas Breimaier, "Tethered to the Cross: The Life...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/09

"Tethered to the cross" is how the renowned nineteenth-century English Baptist minister Charles H. Spurgeon (1834–1892) described the task of ministry and his approach to preaching. For nearly four decades, Spurgeon served as the pastor of the church at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. But what specifically guided the reading of Scripture by the man known as the "Prince of Preachers"? Tracing the development of Spurgeon's thought and his approach to biblical hermeneutics throughout his

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82:02

Gabrielle Thomas, "The Problem of the Devil in...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/07

InThe Problem of the Devil in Cappadocian Thought(Cambridge UP, 2026),Gabrielle Thomas questions the popular assumption that the devil served as the primary explanation for evil, sin, and suffering as early Christians grappled with all that is wrong in the world. Interrogating the status of the devil in the teachings of the Cappadocians – Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Macrina the Younger – she identifies their points of agreement, that the devil is a fallen angel,

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37:23

Francesca Sbardella, "Inhabiting Silence: An...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/07

Monasteries are typically characterized by physical and symbolic limitations on access as they are usually known through written texts and accounts by nuns who live in that world but do not allow others to have access. This has often resulted in research based on indirect sources.Inhabiting Silence: An Anthropologist in the Cloister(Berghahn Books, 2025)is the result of observant participation in which the ethnographer is a protagonist social actor in two French monasteries of Discalced Carmelite

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34:04

Tatjana Kochetkova and Anway Mukhopadhyay eds.,...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/09/03

Amid global dialogue on the nature of human enhancement, this book traces humanity's pursuit of self-transcendence and enhancement from ancient times to the present, as reflected in diverse traditions across the globe.Transhumanism and Divine Humanity in Global Traditions(Routledge, 2026)examines how the term "transhuman" can move beyond its scientific and technological origins by linking it to ideas, symbols, and practices of transcending human limits found in Asian and global religions and

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37:59

Fr. Dwight Longenecker, "Bloodshed and Blessing:...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/08/30

Something deep within you recognizes it–the instinct that sacrifice matters, that something must be offered, that violence and beauty are woven together in ways that mere reason cannot explain. You are not alone. Civilizations throughout history have felt it.InBloodshed and Blessing: Stories of Sacrifice from Ancient Altars to the Holy Mass(Sophia Institute Press, 2026),Fr. Dwight Longenecker takes you on a gripping journey through ten ancient cultures, from the Aztecs to the Vikings, in which

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54:48

An Honest Death: Life's End and Humanist Funerals...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/08/28

A fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at non-religious funerals in contemporary London,An Honest Death:Life's End and Humanist Funerals(Princeton UP, 2026)is an intimate and moving ethnographic account of funerals for people who don’t believe in God or an afterlife. Focusing on secular funeral celebrants of the British Humanist Association (now called Humanists UK), the book examines how their ritual work is geared toward helping realize a secular world. There is a strong ethical commitment behind

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37:36

Holly Crawford Pickett, "The Drama of Serial...

New Books in Religion ·

2026/08/28

After mounting London’s outdoor pulpit known as St. Paul’s Cross on 8th December, 1588, Anthony Tyrrell found himself perched before a skeptical audience. He stood in the shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral to declare his recantation of Catholicism and return to England’s official Protestant Church. The trouble was he had been there before – in January of the same year, in fact – to do the same thing. On that occasion, however, he had shocked on-lookers by delivering an anti-Protestant tirade

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2,069 results

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