Episode Archives

S1 E9 Benjamin Sommer on God’s Bodies

January 26, 2019 Dale God, Jewish Bible, philosophy 1 Comment

Sommer, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel

Could a human being literally shake hands with God? If so, then God must have at least one hand – and one would think, not only a hand, but a complete humanoid body. While sophisticates have long scorned the idea that God could in any sense have a body, as Dr. Benjamin Sommer points out in his The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel, the authors of the Jewish Bible (what Christians call the “Old Testament”) all seem to assume that God has a body. After all, God walks in a garden (Genesis 3:8) and is literally seen by Moses and the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:9-11).

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But in this book Dr. Sommer argues that some ancient Jews, like other Near Eastern peoples, believed that their god (the LORD) had multiple bodies and also multiple personae. Others, though, disagreed; thus Dr. Summer says we can discern an ancient argument behind the texts as they have come down to us.

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As Jewish theology evolved, which side “won” in this dispute, and what did this discussion have to do with concerns about the sin of idolatry? Moreover, what would these ancient authors have thought was involved in God having a body? Would this make God a limited and vulnerable being? Would one in principle be able to starve, imprison, or physically harm such a being?

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Bonus audio: Comparing Maimonides’s view on God’s “body” with Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Holodeck.

S1 E8 Graham Oppy on Atheism and Agnosticism

December 23, 2018 Dale atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, God, Miracles, philosophy, Religious Experience Comments Off on S1 E8 Graham Oppy on Atheism and Agnosticism

Are you a theist, an atheist, an agnostic, or an innocent?

The Kaaba and the Qur'an

S1 E7 Jonathan A. C. Brown on the Qur’an and the Hadith

November 17, 2018 Dale Christian Bible, Hadith, Islam, Qur'an, Religious Reform 1 Comment

cover of Brown - Misquoting Muhammad

When many of us think of a scripture, we think of the Protestant Christian Bible: a well-defined, reasonably small library of writings which can be printed in a single, thick volume.

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It’s not that simple in Islam. While there is the Qur’an, there is also an enormous body of reports about Muhammad’s sayings and deeds called the Hadith, and Islamic law is fundamentally based on these more than on the Qur’an.

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As it is clear that many are inaccurate, Islamic scholars have long tried to sort these Hadith reports into the categories of “sound,” “well-known,” or “weak.” But even when this is done, the modern believer faces the problem of scriptural passages which seem implausible or morally problematic. In his Misquoting Muhammad, Dr. Jonathan A.C. Brown discusses many ways Islamic scholars have grappled with problematic scritural passages. In this interview we discuss some notorious examples, including a passage from Sura 4 of the Qur’an, and the hadith of the fly.

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Bonus audio: Dr. Brown talks about his conversion to Islam and about his interest in Egypt.

Tibetan prayer flags

S1 E6 Donald Lopez on A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet

November 10, 2018 Dale Buddhism, Christianity, God, philosophy, Religious Diversity Comments Off on S1 E6 Donald Lopez on A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet

Dispelling the Darkness book coverIn 1712 Italian Jesuit priest Ippolito Desideri set off an dangerous mission to Tibet, his goal to win souls to Roman Catholic Christianity. But his plan was not to merely preach the gospel, or to combine preaching and charitable works. He would learn Tibetan, familiarize himself with Tibetan paganism, and seek to persuade them to convert through a series of rational arguments, put forth in a learned treatise in the style of Tibetan Buddhism.


What happened when he got there? In this episode Dr. Donald S. Lopez Jr. discuss his recent book, co-authored with Dr. Thupten Jinpa, Dispelling the Darkness: A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet. In this book they not only tell Desideri’s major-motion-picture-worthy story, but they also translate some of his writings. Dr. Lopez discusses both the stories and some of the central ideas of Desideri’s works. Boldly, Desideri tries to refute the central Buddhist doctrines of rebirth and of emptiness.


Shiva

S1 E4 Wendy Doniger on Hinduism

October 25, 2018 Dale atheism, God, Hinduism, Judaism, pantheism Comments Off on S1 E4 Wendy Doniger on Hinduism

On Hinduism by Wendy DonigerDr. Wendy Doniger’s On Hinduism is a sort of captstone on an epic career exploring Hindu literature, religion, and history.

In this conversation we discuss a number of themes from the book, including her own religious background, common misconceptions about Hinduism, the caste system, orientalism, the so-called “Hindu Trinity,” Hindu nationalism, a controversy in India over the charge that she committed blasphemy, goddess worship and its relationship to the status of women, non-violence, how Western cultures have influenced recent Hindu thought, and reincarnation.


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The Hindus - An Alternative History - Wendy Doniger

Maurycy Gottlieb - Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur - detail

S1 E3 Amy-Jill Levine on The Jewish Annotated New Testament

October 20, 2018 Dale Christian Bible, Christianity, Jewish Bible, Judaism Comments Off on S1 E3 Amy-Jill Levine on The Jewish Annotated New Testament

Jewish Annotated New Testament, 2nd Ed.Typically religious scholars will comment on the scriptures of their own religion. But sometimes, bold scholars will go where others fear to tread, commenting the scriptures of another religion. The situation is all the more sensitive when historically, one religion branched off of the other.

 

This episode of Thinking About Religion is a wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, co-editor of The Jewish Annotated New Testament, a “study Bible” edition of the New Testament featuring lengthy commentary and essays by (non-Christian) Jewish scholars.

 

Among other things we discuss faith, clashing interpretations of scripture, misconceptions about Judaism, conversion, humor in the Bible, and the theological significance of local thunder during the interview.

 

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Hitler portrait

S1 E2: Richard Weikart on Hitler’s Religion

October 12, 2018 Dale atheism, Christianity, God, naturalism, pantheism Comments Off on S1 E2: Richard Weikart on Hitler’s Religion

The cover of Hitler's Religion by historian Richard Weikart.The ghost of Hitler has been drafted into the culture wars – for the other team. Christian leaders have suggested that Nazism was a variety of “atheist extremism.” Atheist champion Richard Dawkins retorted that “Hitler was a Roman Catholic.“

 

Is either side correct? After analyzing thousands of primary sources, historian Dr. Richard Weikart has written the definitive book on Hitler’s own religious views. In this episode we discuss his findings in Hitler’s Religion: The Twisted Beliefs that Drove the Third Reich.

 

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S1 E1: David McMahon on Buddhist Modernism

September 24, 2018 Dale Buddhism, Christianity, God, naturalism Comments Off on S1 E1: David McMahon on Buddhist Modernism

Before recent times, most Buddhists, and even most Buddhist monks, did not meditate. Yet today, many consider sitting meditation to be the essence of Buddhist practice. How does the Buddhism one encounters in the religious marketplace today differ from what was taught by its ancient Indian founder?

The Making of Buddhist ModernismAccording to Dr. David McMahan, author of The Making of Buddhist Modernism, both Asian and Western Buddhists have significantly adapted its teachings in modern times, incorporating several themes from modern Western cultures, including Transcendentalism, Scientific Rationalism, Perennialism, and Romanticism.

In this wide-ranging discussion we discuss Dr. McMahan’s evolving understanding of and experience of Buddhism, the different sorts of Buddhist sutras, how competition with Christianity has shaped Buddhist modernism, the appeal of spirituality without a personal god, Buddhism as both spiritual and scientific, rebirth, samsara, mindfulness meditation, the Buddha as “just a man,” worship of the Buddha and other beings, the issue of whether or not these new ideas constitute authentic Buddhism, the political implications of Buddhist modernism, and the future of Buddhism in the U.S.

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S1 E5 – Andrei Buckareff on Alternative Concepts of God

August 28, 2018 Dale atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, God, Hinduism, Judaism, naturalism, panentheism, pantheism, philosophy Comments Off on S1 E5 – Andrei Buckareff on Alternative Concepts of God

Dr. Andrei Buckareff and some of his co-authors are convinced that in recent times philosophers of religion have been too traditional, focusing too much of their attention on an understanding of God as a perfect creator of the cosmos who is distinct from that cosmos, someone who created it out of nothing.

To remedy this many of them propose that God just is the cosmos (pantheism) or that God is like a soul and the cosmos is God’s body (panentheism).

As it’s philosophy, though, intellectual diversity is on display; other authors criticize such views, or explore alternatives within or outside of traditional theistic theologies.

In this wide-ranging interview, we hear about this ongoing research project, some of these alternative concepts of God (i.e. the unique, ultimate reality), and what motivates such explorations.