I've downloaded and listened to this podcast for 2-3 years now, and have at times greatly enjoyed it. On its best days this podcast provides fascinating insights in the history and practice of religion - in the early church, in americal history, and across the world.
The problem - and it has become more and more glaring over the years - come as the podcast moves into the present. Looking at Dr Gill's guest and topic list, one would assume that progressive and
emerging Christianies do not exist. His guests almost exclusively follow the typical religious conservative party line, with discussions of important topics (religious liberty, media bias, etc.) from and American Evangelical conservative bias, and virtually no discussion of other vital faith issues of our day (e.g. Christian duties in environmental stewardship, economic justice, etc.).
I once heard Tony Gill say he was inspired to start his podcast by Russ Roberts economics podcast "Econtalk". Sadly, he has followed his inspiration too far fallen into the same trap. Just as Robert's podcast operates with and ideological bias toward the Hayekian and seldom includes any voices that might challenge those biases, Gill's "Research on Religion" has come to be more a forum for conservative evangelical apologetics than a place for genuine inquiry into the issues facing religion today.
In fairness to Gill, one could argue that this problem has deeper roots than his podcast. The academic study of religion has largely been abandoned by secular universities and resides mostly in those institutions whose own biases get projected into the results. A sad state of affairs to be sure, but one which Gill could at least acknowledge instead of tacitly participating in.
All told I'll probably check into Research on Religion for the occasional historical nugget, but listening regularly just isn't worth it anymore.
