
266 episodes

The Classical Ideas Podcast Gregory Soden
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- Religion & Spirituality
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4.8 • 89 Ratings
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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!
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EP 263: Majorette Dance, HBCU's, and Idioms w/Dustin Gavin
Dustin Gavin (he/him) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Departments of Religious Studies and African American Studies at Yale University. He received his B.A. in Journalism from Howard University, an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School, and completed his second M.A. in Religion and Visual Arts at Yale Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music. Dustin's research examines the overlap and confluence of sacred and profane idioms to examine the histories, aesthetics, and embodied performances of black women, sissies, and femmes across U.S. Southern regions.
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https://twitter.com/Sacred_Writes
Listen to the complete Sacred Writes-Classical Ideas collection:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0JzteHE3RIyOKA9xosmK6W -
EP 262: Indhira Udofia on the impact of religious trauma on Black Millennials and Generation Z
Indhira Udofia (she/they) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Joint Program in Social Work at NC A&T University and UNC Greensboro. Their dissertation project looks at the impact of religious trauma on Black Millennials and Generation Z, exploring the impact of institutional violence on gendered and sexual minorities within Black religious spaces. Her extensive experience providing therapeutic and spiritual services in clinical and community settings (since 2009) and faith communities (since 2014), shaped her deep passion for helping communities and individuals recover from trauma, especially in spaces of spiritual abuse and grief. Indhira believes that their work is a collaborative effort to empower others in their own healing journey. Using strengths-based methodologies and client-based appropriate rituals, restorative practices, and trauma-informed consultation, they work to address power dynamics, conflict resolution, self-care, and other issues that may arise within a healing framework, for the flourishing of the collective. Indhira’s love of the arts, especially music, and her travels all over the world, allow her a perspective that is inclusive, welcoming, and informed.
Follow Indhira Udofia:
-https://twitter.com/BlaQTraumaNerd
-https://linktr.ee/imudofia
Follow Sacred Writes:
https://www.sacred-writes.org/
https://twitter.com/Sacred_Writes
Listen to the complete Sacred Writes-Classical Ideas collection:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0JzteHE3RIyOKA9xosmK6W
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EP 261: Dr. Anthony Siracusa on Nonviolence before King
In the early 1960s, thousands of Black activists used nonviolent direct action to challenge segregation at lunch counters, movie theaters, skating rinks, public pools, and churches across the United States, battling for, and winning, social change. Organizers against segregation had used litigation and protests for decades but not until the advent of nonviolence did they succeed in transforming ingrained patterns of white supremacy on a massive scale. In this book, Anthony C. Siracusa unearths the deeper lineage of anti-war pacifist activists and thinkers from the early twentieth century who developed nonviolence into a revolutionary force for Black liberation.
Telling the story of how this powerful political philosophy came to occupy a central place in the Black freedom movement by 1960, Siracusa challenges the idea that nonviolent freedom practices faded with the rise of the Black Power movement. He asserts nonviolence's staying power, insisting that the indwelling commitment to struggle for freedom collectively in a spirit of nonviolence became, for many, a lifelong commitment. In the end, what was revolutionary about the nonviolent method was its ability to assert the basic humanity of Black Americans, to undermine racism's dehumanization, and to insist on the right to be.
Buy the book: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469663005/nonviolence-before-king/ -
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EP 259: The Saint Johns Bible, Song of Songs, and Calligraphy w/Jonathan Homrighausen
The illuminations of The Saint John’s Bible have delighted many with their imaginative takes on Scripture. But many struggle to appreciate the calligraphy more deeply than merely noting its beauty. Does calligraphy mean something? How is it beautiful?
This book, written by a biblical scholar who has spent years working with this Bible, shows how calligraphic art powerfully interplays visual form, textual content, and creative process. Homrighausen proposes five lenses for this artform: gardens, weaving, pilgrimage, touching, and enfleshing words. Each of these lenses springs from the poetry of the Song of Songs, its illuminations in The Saint John’s Bible, and medieval ways of understanding the scribe’s craft. While these metaphors for calligraphic art draw from this particular illuminated Bible, this book is aimed at all lovers of calligraphy, art, and sacred text.
Jonathan Homrighausen, a doctoral candidate in Hebrew Bible at Duke University, teaches in Judaic Studies at the College of William & Mary. His research explores the intersection of Hebrew Bible, calligraphic art, and scribal craft. He is the author of Illuminating Justice: The Ethical Imagination of The Saint John's Bible (Liturgical Press, 2018) and articles in Religion and the Arts, Image, Teaching Theology and Religion, Transpositions, and Visual Commentary on Scripture. -
BONUS EPISODE: A Guide to Eating in Buffalo w/Arthur Bovino
Buffalo isn’t just a city full of great wings. There is a great hot dog tradition, from Greek- originated “Texas red hots” to year-round charcoal-grilling at Ted’s that puts Manhattan’s dirty water dogs to shame. This is also a city of great sandwiches. It’s a place where capicola gets layered on grilled sausage, where sautéed dandelions traditionally make up the greens in a comestible called steak- in-the-grass, and chicken fingers pack into soft Costanzo’s sub rolls with Provolone, tomato, lettuce, blue cheese dressing, and Frank’s RedHot Sauce to become something truly naughty.
Food and travel writer Arthur Bovino ate his research, taking the reader to the bars, the old-school Polish and Italian-American eateries, the Burmese restaurants, and the new-school restaurants tapping into the region’s rich agricultural bounty. With all this experience under his belt (and stretching it), Bovino has created the essential guide to food in Buffalo.
Arthur Bovino is a restaurant, food media, and travel writer. The Daily Meal’s founding Eat/Dine editor, Bovino is a graduate of New York City’s International Culinary Institute. He has appeared on the Today Show and ABC News.
Buy the book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781682681220
Customer Reviews
Educational Inspiring and irresistible...
Consistently educational, rich in content, the purpose to make the world more peaceful and compassionate through promoting religious literary around the world, Greg Soden’s inspiring series the Classical Ideas Podcast is an amazing piece of work that you don’t want to miss! 1000 thumbs up!
27 mins in, still don’t know what I’d learn from author’s book
I’m twenty seven minutes into “EP 189: The Lives of Objects w/Maia Kotrosits,” author of _ The Lives of Objects: Material Culture, Experience, and the Real in the History of Early Christianity_ and it's still unclear exactly what one would learn by reading the book. They talk about the author’s background for eleven minutes, then why she wrote the book, then about material culture in general. Twenty seven minutes in and still not the slightest hint what if anything the book has to say about how any of it relates to early Christianity. I give up.
Too political
It's an interesting and informative podcast, covering a variety of religions. However, I wish the host would not bring up his political beliefs. If the guests want to bring up theirs, that's fine, but hosts of educational podcasts should leave their own beliefs out of it.
It's also noticeable that of all of the guests that have brought up their political beliefs are left-wing like the host. I wonder if the host will ever interview someone who does not share his political beliefs. He's clearly interested in understanding different religious beliefs, but doesn't seem interested in understanding why people might hold different political beliefs, and gives the typical left-wing strawman representations of different political beliefs.