Re-visioning Religion Jonas Atlas

William T. Cavanaugh is a professor of Catholic studies and political theology at DePaul University. In this conversation, we delve into the arguments he presents in his latest book, The Uses of Idolatry.

In contemporary religious discussions, idolatry is often overlooked. The prevailing belief is that everyone should live according to their own faith without categorizing religions as true or false. However, in his fascinating new book, Professor Cavanaugh elucidates how idolatry can be a very useful concept for analyzing contemporary society and for challenging the taken-for-granted boundaries between “the religious” and “the secular.” In so doing, he unites many of the themes he has explored in his previous works into a coherent, overarching argument.

Together, we discuss how modernity has filled “the God-shaped hole” with the gods of nationalism and consumerism, revealing that we are not disenchanted at all but rather dominated by the gods of our own making.



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For more on prof. Cavanaugh's book:https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-uses-of-idolatry-9780197679043

For the previous conversation with William Cavanaugh see the episode on Religion, violence, secularism and spirituality



Re-visioning Religion is hosted by Jonas Atlasjonasatlas.net

Jessica Corneille is a research psychologist who has recently published the peer-reviewed paper: Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings: Phenomenology, Altered States, Individual Differences, and Well-Being. The main take-aways for Jonas were: 1. In the field of psychology spontaneous spiritual awakenings (SSA's) are still often either pathologized or not taken seriously enough as profound experiences that can have very beneficial effects in the lives of people. 2. Although their might exist a huge variety of SSA’s, it seems like there’s a common substrate to them. 3. SSA’s that are not drug induced seem to have even stronger impacts than ASC’s brought about by psychedelics. In their conversation they unpacked each of these findings and their implications.

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Jessica's article, which was co-authored with David Luke, can be found on the website of the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

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Re-visioning Religion is hosted by Jonas Atlas.

jonasatlas.net

Both Rupert Sheldrake and Bernardo Kastrup are outspoken critics of mechanical materialism. In previous episodes, I already had a conversation with Bernardo Kastrup about his philosophical idealism and how that might influence our view of religion. With Rupert I had an in-depth dialogue about the seven secular myths about religion. However, I was surprised to find out that there were no recordings of the two of them discussing one of their core interests together: consciousness and its relation to the formation of reality. So, I reached out to them and proposed to moderate a talk about the overlaps and divergences in their views. In a sense, this led to a logical follow-up to our previous conversations, since we moved our focus from ‘religion’ to ‘God.’ That is to say, we engagaged in a discussion on the divine essence of existence. Casting a new light on age-old philosophical debates, the conversation explored the inherent consciousness underlying all reality in its deepest depths and highest heights. Rupert and Bernardo reinforced as well as nuanced each other’s perspectives, with a thought-provoking dialogue about the nature of the cosmic mind as a result.



For a video version of this conversation: https://youtu.be/Wi1U7Cw4XV0?si=fyXxoTP0mDult2Bt



For the previous episode with Bernardo Kastrup: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/re-visioning-religion/episodes/An-idealist-perspective-on-God-and-religion-e1k4cs9/a-a84m765



And for Jonas' earlier conversation with Rupert: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/re-visioning-religion/episodes/Bonus-the-seven-secular-myths-about-religion-e28i54o



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For more on Bernardo and his work:

https://www.bernardokastrup.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeDZCa3VrRQvzBlVR-oVVmA

https://www.essentiafoundation.org/

https://www.youtube.com/@essentiafoundation



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For more on Rupert and his work:

https://www.sheldrake.org/

https://www.youtube.com/@RupertSheldrakePhD

https://www.facebook.com/RupertSheldrake

My guest today is Rupert Sheldrake, a well-known biologist and author of groundbreaking books on science and spirituality. But the roles are a bit reversed this time. Instead of focusing on Rupert's ideas, we talked about one of my own books.

As you will hear in the introduction of the conversation, when we originally recorded this podcast a couple of years ago, I had just launched a book in Dutch which tackles the seven main myths about religion. I told Rupert that I hoped to one day publish an English translation as well. And that day has come. At the end of June, the translation was published by IFF books under the title Religion: Reality Behind the Myths. 

As such, it seemed like a good idea to put this conversation with Rupert Sheldrake on my own Re-visioning Religion podcast channel. If, afterwards, you feel like reading the book, then you’ll find Religion: Reality Behind the Myths in your favorite online bookstore. Needless to say, it offers a more in-depth look at all the topics I discussed with Rupert and much more. Because of time constraints, we could of course only scratch the surface.

Those who’d prefer the video version can find the original on Rupert’s YouTube channel. But if you prefer the audio podcast, then please enjoy the conversation.

A conversation with Liz Bucar.

Elizabeth Bucar is a professor of religion at Northeastern University and a leading expert in religious ethics. Jonas and Liz sat down to talk about her latest book 'Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation', which offers an in-depth reflection about the ethical and political dynamics behind various forms of religious borrowing.

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Photograph of Liz Bucar: Alyssa Stone

More info on 'Stealing My Religion': Harvard University Press website.

Many years ago, when I first read Professor William Cavanaugh’s book The myth of religious violence, it thoroughly shook my views on religion and secularism. Religion is generally thought of as something inherently violent because it is based on irrational beliefs, while secularism is seen as a rational way of organizing difference of opinion. Cavanaugh’s book, however, completely upends such commonplace assumptions. Considering the continuing popularity of the book, I clearly was not the only one who found his arguments intriguing. Even though the book was published in 2009, he was recently invited to the Netherlands to give several lectures on the topic at various universities. We met in Nijmegen, where he ended his tour, and had a long, in-depth conversation about various blind spots in the daily discourses on religion, secularism, and spirituality.

We were also joined by my good friend Paul Van der Velde, a professor of Hinduism and Buddhism at the Radboud University. Having Paul with us, allowed us to bring in a more Asian perspective on the topic. Our various expertises eventually combined into a coherent whole.

Besides discussing the myth of religious violence, we als discussed violence in historic and contemporary Buddhism, we questioned whether or not words like “religion” and “secularism” should be completely abandoned, wet analysed historic and contemporary elements of the Iranian regime, we delved deeper in professor Cavanaugh’s views the Catholic Church’s relationship with violence, and we wondered whether we could perhaps interpret Donald Trump’s view on life as a form of extremist positive thinking.