The Classical Ideas Podcast

Gregory Soden
  • 4.8 (94)
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Biweekly

Simply stated, religion matters. Religion matters not only for personal reasons, but also for social, economic, political, and military purposes. Unfortunately, studies suggest that religious knowledge and cultural literacy for any religious tradition is either in decline or is non-existent in the United States, despite being one of the most religiously diverse nation on earth. Today, religion is implicated in nearly every major national and international issue. The public arena is awash in religious explanations and arguments for nearly every issue. The goal of The Classical Ideas Podcast is to empower students with the core knowledge of major world religions to improve citizenship and agency in a diverse society. Welcome to the show!

  1. 4d ago

    EP 362: Creating Everyday Ethical Spaces: My Cambodian Mother's Buddhist Practices" w/Dr. Sophea Seng

    Sophea Seng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at California State University, Long Beach, where she teaches courses on Cambodian diaspora, refugee studies, and transnational migration. A first‑generation Cambodian American scholar, she holds a PhD in Anthropology and an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of California, Riverside, as well as an MA in Asian American Studies from CSULB. Her research focuses on Cambodian Buddhist communities in the United States and Europe, using ethnographic and community‑based methods to examine identity, religion, memory, and belonging in refugee and diasporic contexts. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/

  2. Oct 19

    EP 361: Feeling Buddhism w/Dr. Gwendolyn Gillson

    From https://www.gwendolyngillson.com: I am Associate Professor of Asian Studies in the History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion department at Illinois College. My research brings together anthropology of religion, religious studies, Japanese studies, and gender studies to trouble the "traditional" narratives of scholarship and society. My work focuses on otherness, however defined, within larger power structures and attempts to recover and ultimately highlight otherized experiences and ways of being. Please check out the rest of the website for more details! My edited textbook, The Essential Guide to Buddhism, came out with Bloomsbury Academic in 2024. Purchase a copy here. Before Illinois College, I worked as Visiting Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions at Oberlin College. I received my PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Iowa in 2018 and an MA from the same institution in 2015. In 2012, I received an MLIS in Archives from the University of Oklahoma and my BA in Religion from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2009. I now proudly serve on the Phi Beta Kappa Committee at IC after being inducted as an undergraduate. Born in Oklahoma, I have moved all around the Midwest and love every second of it. I enjoy cooking, baking (and winning baking competitions), reading fiction, playing D&D, and spending time with my husband John, and my cat Herne. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/

  3. Sep 25

    EP 360: Inari Origin Stories and Buddhist Public Scholarship w/Dr. Matthew Keller

    Dr. Matthew Keller is Public Scholar of Buddhism within the Curatorial Department at the Detroit Institute of Arts! He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California in Asian Religions.  This episode supported by Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/ Matthew Keller at American Council of Learned Societies: https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/matthew-keller/

  4. Sep 3

    EP 359: Longchengpa and Lineage Prayers w/Dr. Renée Ford

    Renée Ford, Ph.D. is a Lab Coordinator at the Contemplative Sciences Center, providing support for contemplative research at the CIRCL Lab. Renée's keen interest in understanding lived experiences in various contexts is a key motivation to her engagement here. She is trained in microphenomenology interviews, a type of interview that focuses on a short moment of experience and interested to apply this method in ongoing research studies.  Renée completed her Ph.D. at Rice University in religious studies, and her dissertation focused on how affective states such as devotion and confidence function in Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices. Prior to joining the CSC, Renée has held fellowship positions at Aarhus University and Ruhr University – Bochum. She has conducted fieldwork in Nepal and India, conducting various types of interviews to capture lived experience and translation work. She also has taught courses in religious studies, including Buddhism and Hinduism, in multiple institutions.   On this episode, we dive into a primer about Tibetan Buddhism, lineage prayers, and a bit about the life of the Tibetan scholar, Longchengpa. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org Visit Renée Ford online: https://csc.virginia.edu/people/renee-ford

  5. Aug 17

    EP 358: Buddhist Military Chaplaincy in Korea w/Dr. Jonathan C. Feuer

    Jonathan Feuer earned his Ph.D in Asian Languages and Cultures from UCLA in 2023. His current book project is entitled Buddhist Militarism, Violence, and Religious Freedom: The South Korean Buddhist Military Chaplaincy and his research interests include Buddhist modernity, South Korean history, and religion and violence. On this episode, we discuss Buddhist military chaplaincy in detail and preview what readers can expect with his forthcoming book! You can find his work at https://jonathancfeuer.com/. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/

  6. Aug 10

    EP 357: Khemethaka Nunnery, Daw Gunawati, and pāramī w/Dr. M.K. Long

    MK Long is a historian and ethnographer of Buddhism and gender. Her current project highlights vernacular auto/biographical writings of Buddhist women in Myanmar, examining their rhetorical strategies of self-presentation and how they theorize Buddhist authority, temporality, and belonging. Long's study of vernacular literature of the 1980s-90s foregrounds its conditions of production, not only its relationship to Buddhist biographical and narrative traditions, but also authoritarian censorship, state-driven reorganization of monastic institutions, and shifting citizenship regimes. This work is shaped and informed by Long's ethnographic fieldwork in a large, mission-oriented nunnery in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, and its network of branch nunneries throughout the country. Long's research has drawn support from the Social Science Research Council's International Dissertation Research Fellowship (SSRC-IDRF), the Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA), and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies, awarded through the American Council of Learned Societies. Long earned her doctorate from the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University with a graduate minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in 2024. She holds an M.T.S in Buddhist Studies (Harvard Divinity School, 2016), an M.A. in International Relations & Religion (Boston University, 2014), and a B.A. in Religion (Smith College, 2010). Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/templeton-working-group

  7. Aug 3

    EP 356: Buddhism and Experimental Music w/Dr. Julian Butterfield

    Julian Butterfield is a scholar of medieval Chinese Buddhist literature with a special interest in how Mahāyāna Buddhist narratives depict and solicit feeling. His current monograph project recovers the aesthetic and affective dimensions of Lotus Sūtra devotion in fifth-to-eighth-century China, arguing that the transmission of this pivotal Buddhist scripture relied heavily on the cultivation of strong emotions among practitioners. A secondary, public-facing research project investigates the interactions of Buddhist media and musical experimentation from the nineteenth century to the present. Julian holds a BA and MA from the University of Toronto and a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University, where his research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and a Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. He is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. Read: https://tricycle.org/magazine/eliane-radique-alien-roots/ Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/ Visit Julian Butterfield: https://julianbutterfield.com/

  8. Jul 28

    EP 355: Buddhist Charities in Urban Vietnam w/Dr. Sara Swenson

    Sara Swenson works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College. Her current research explores how grassroots charity volunteers in Vietnam adapt Buddhist values and practices to navigate ethical struggles amid rapid urbanization and she is the author of "Near Light We Shine: Buddhist Charities in Urban Vietnam" from Oxford University Press! Visit Sara Swenson online: https://saswenson.com/about/ Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/

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4.8
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About

Simply stated, religion matters. Religion matters not only for personal reasons, but also for social, economic, political, and military purposes. Unfortunately, studies suggest that religious knowledge and cultural literacy for any religious tradition is either in decline or is non-existent in the United States, despite being one of the most religiously diverse nation on earth. Today, religion is implicated in nearly every major national and international issue. The public arena is awash in religious explanations and arguments for nearly every issue. The goal of The Classical Ideas Podcast is to empower students with the core knowledge of major world religions to improve citizenship and agency in a diverse society. Welcome to the show!

Information

  • Creator
    Gregory Soden
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    365
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Classical Ideas Podcast 2017-2020
  • Show Website
    The Classical Ideas Podcast

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