The Classical Ideas Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep 123: Dr. Judith Weisenfeld on Black Religion and Racial Identity Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Judith Weisenfeld teaches in the Department of Religion at Princeton University where she is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and Associated Faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Weisenfeld is the author of New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration, out now in paperback from New York University Press.

Please visit her website at judithweisenfeld.com and follow her at twitter.com/jlweisenfeld.

Buy the book here or here.

Ep 122: Dr. Brett Grainger on "Church In The Wild" Jun 30, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Brett Malcolm Grainger is a scholar of American religion and an award-winning journalist. He is Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University and the author ofChurch In The Wild: Evangelicals In Antebellum American and In The World but Not of It: One Family's Militant Faith and the History of Fundamentalism in America.

You can view his work at his Academia.edu page here.

Ep 121: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of the Religious Left w/ Dr. L. Benjamin Rolsky Jun 26, 2019

Show notes

L. Benjamin Rolsky received his PhD from Drew University in American Religious Studies. His work has appeared in a variety of academic and popular venues including Method and Theory in the Study of Religion and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion as well as The Christian Century, The Los Angeles Review of Books, CNN Opinion, and the Religion and Culture Forum at the University of Chicago. His research and teaching interests include religion and politics, the study of popular culture, and critical theory.

Rolsky's first book, The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left: Politics, Television, and Popular Culture in the 1970s and Beyond, is forthcoming this Fall from Columbia University Press.

Visit his website: https://www.benjirolsky.com/

Follow Rolsky on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LBRolsky

Order "Rise and Fall of the Religious Left" from Columbia University Press

Order "Rise and Fall of the Religious Left" from Amazon

EP 120: Dr. Anthony Kaldellis on Byzantium and "Romanland" Jun 22, 2019

Show notes

Anthony Kaldellis is Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at The Ohio State University. He is the author of many books, including The Christian Parthenon, Hellenism in Byzantium, and The Byzantine Republic. The focus of today's conversation is his latest book, Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium, out now from Harvard University Press.

Buy Romanland: here or here.

Ep 119: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness w/Ben Connelly Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

Ben Connelly is a Minneapolis-based Soto Zen teacher in the Katagiri-lineage. He offers a wide variety of secular mindfulness trainings, including for police departments, corporate settings, correctional facilities, and addiction recovery groups. He teaches at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center and is the author of Inside the Grass hut, Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara, and most recently Mindfulness and Intimacy, out now from Wisdom Publications.

You can visit Ben's author profile at: Wisdom Publications.

Ep 118: Taoism, Martial Arts, and Mad Monk Manifesto with Monk Yun Rou Jun 12, 2019

Show notes

Monk Yun Rou was ordained in China as a Taoist monk in 2012. His writings and teachings propagate Taoist ideas and focus on environmental conservation, and political and social justice. Yun Rou began his formal martial arts training in 1980 and practiced a wide range of Chinese kung fu styles before settling on tai chi. A student of some of China's top tai chi grandmasters, he was named Tai Chi Master of The Year at the 2011 World Congress on Qigong and Traditional Chinese Medicine and Yun Rou was the keynote speaker at the International Tai Chi Symposium in Louisville, Kentucky. Yun Rou is the author of Mad Monk Manifesto.

Follow him online at https://www.monkyunrou.com/

Ep 117: A Discussion on Plural Marriage w/Philippa J. Meek Jun 06, 2019

Show notes

Philippa J. Meek is a Doctoral fellow at the University of Exeter. Meek researches public perceptions versus the realities of plural marriage within Fundamentalist Mormon communities. This episode gives a detailed overview of the court cases Loving V. Virginia, Obergefell vs. Hodges, Lawrence vs. Texas, and then discusses what possible path forward there is for legalization of plural marriage in the United States.

You can find her work on Academia.edu: here

You can follow her on Twitter: here

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Ep 116: The Lives of Spiritually Fluid People w/ Dr. Duane Bidwell May 30, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Duane Bidwell works to reduce suffering and promote abundant life in all of his teaching, writing, and research.

Experiences as chaplain, pastor, spiritual director, pastoral counselor, HIV/AIDS professional, and non-profit director inform his work as teacher-scholar-clinician. CST students have given him teaching and mentoring awards three times since 2014. He is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and practitioner of vipassana (insight meditation) in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.

His most recent book, When One Religion Isn't Enough: The Lives of Spiritually Fluid People (Boston: Beacon, 2018), examines complex religious bonds–the experience of being formed by more than one religious tradition at the same time. The book builds on his work in transreligious pastoral theology and in Buddhist-Christian studies. Library Journal named it a Best Book 2018.

Buy the book here.

Ep 115: Mitch Horowitz on The New Age and Gnosticism May 24, 2019

Show notes

Mitch Horowitz is a writer-in-residence at the New York Public Library, a lecturer-in-residence at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, and the PEN Award-winning author of books including Occult America; One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life; Mind as Builder; and the The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality. Mitch has written on everything from the war on witches to the secret life of Ronald Reagan for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Salon, Time.com, and Politico.

He is the voice of popular audio books including Alcoholics Anonymous and The Jefferson Bible. Mitch has discussed alternative spirituality on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, NPR'S All Things Considered, and throughout the national media. His work has been censored in China.

Mitch enjoys the Misfits and Dead Kennedys.

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MitchHorowitz

Ep 114: WWII, Religious Freedom, and the Occupation of Japan w/Dr. Jolyon Thomas May 19, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Jolyon Thomas is the author of "Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan," out now from the University of Chicago Press. Dr. Thomas is assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Follow Jolyon Thomas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jolyonbt

Buy "Faking Liberties here.

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