Soul Search ABC listen
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- Religion & Spirituality
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Soul Search explores contemporary religion and spirituality from the inside out — what we believe, how we express it, and the difference it makes in our lives
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The stories that stick with us — Keerthik Sasidharan and the Mahābhārata
Keerthik Sasidharan grew up with stories from the great Indian epics. They fired his imagination, and they've stayed with him through all kinds of changes — including moving from India to New York City. Now he is reimagining the Mahābhārata, one of the major Sanskrit epics of ancient India.
Keerthik Sasidharan is an author and essayist based in New York City. His first book is The Dharma Forest, published by Penguin India in 2019.
More info
Read Keerthik Sasidharan's piece in Aeon magazine, The Way of Dharma
Listen to the episode of Soul Search mentioned in this episode, The music of doubt, grief and transformation -
Hope and healing in Rwanda and beyond
Thirty years after the Rwandan genocide, Rwandans are working towards a better future for the country, and each other — including the perpetrators of the violence. Also, an Australian doctor works tirelessly all over Africa to heal women of fistulas — a medical condition related to childbirth that's almost unheard of in wealthy countries.
Emmanuel Kwizera is a Partnership Facilitator with Compassion International and a former sponsor child. He survived the Rwandan genocide at the age of five and has since become a leader of the Rwanda alumni association, with over 10,000 Compassion alumni who support children in poverty. He is also a children's pastor at his Pentecostal church.
Dr Andrew Browning AM is Medical Director at the Barbara May Foundation. His book is A Doctor in Africa: The Australian surgeon changing the lives of women in Africa. He has completed over 8000 free fistula operations all over Africa. He is the nephew of Valerie Browning, who appeared on Soul Search in 2022. -
Navigating faith over a lifetime
What role does faith play over the course of a lifetime? Three Christian women, each from a different generation, engage in an honest conversation about faith.
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Ramadan — Seeking the divine in times of suffering
How can one nurture the soul? Or seek the divine in times of suffering and violence? These aren't new questions, but as 1.9 billion Muslims approach the peak of Ramadan, we meet a poet and a professor wrestling with these questions.
Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM is the Founding Director of the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE) at UniSA. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of Islamic Studies.
Yahia Lababidi.is a writer, poet and aphorist. His forthcoming collection of poems Palestine Wail, is dedicated to his grandmother, who had to flee her home in Jerusalem nearly 80 years ago.
Further information:
"Love that makes devils weep", "Ramadan", "What Tragedy Teaches" ©️ Yahia Lababidi -
Imagining Jesus on screen and in literature
Jesus is a film star. He’s graced the big screen since the beginning of cinema — you can probably picture him: robed and long-haired, but that’s only one way to imagine Jesus. In fact, the conversation about the image of Christ goes back a whole lot further than the story of cinema — to the earliest Christian era. There are multiple depictions of Jesus in the Bible, and artists have been giving expression to the Christ figure in different ways across time.
Dr Adrian Rosenfeldt is a Lecturer and Head Tutor in Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University. He has a particular interest in sociology of spirituality expressed in film and music as well as New Atheist identities in a post 9-11 world. He is the author of The God Debaters: New Atheist Identity-Making and the Religious Self in the New Millennium and an upcoming article in the Human Studies journal titled, The “Spirit” of new Atheism and Religious Activism.
Dr Katharine Massam is Professor of History at the University of Divinity and the author of a new study of the Australian writer Kylie Tennant, whose depression-era novels offer a disruptive vision of Christ in the midst of the workers' movement. -
Rituals of repair, of politics and ourselves
Rituals mark moments moments throughout our lives, big and small. They are also used to draw attention to political injustice and social inequality, to express lament and to reorient the participants in the ritual toward wholeness. What role might rituals play in our lives and our politics, and who might we find participating beside us?
Cole Arthur Riley is a writer, poet and NYT bestselling author. She is also the creator of Black Liturgies, a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation, where she serves as Curator. Her books include This Here Flesh and Black Liturgies.
Dr Molly Farneth is Associate Professor in the Religion Department of Haverford College. Her research and teaching focus on American and European religious thought (19th century to the present), with particular attention to religion and politics, ethics, rituals, and feminist and gender studies in religion. She is the author of The Politics of Ritual.
Customer Reviews
In Touch . . . In the Spirit
The Spirit of Things is absolutely wonderful. Based in Austrialia, the show is universal. I listen to it every Sunday. If you're in touch with the Spirit or searching within the Spirit, then the Spirit of Things is definately for you.
Religiously focussed with a generally positive view
I was hoping to learn more about religion and spirituality by listening to this podcast, but it appears to be a re-titled show originally called the Spirit of Things, which seems to have a rather uncritical take on spirituality. I personally have a harder time learning about something when it isn't at least somewhat self critical.
A Review of the Spirit of Things
This is a wonderful podcast if you are interested in improving your own spirit. Wide range of topics but always relevant.