Podcasts about world religions paradigm

How a post-modern deconstruction of religious education threatens the most effective tool our society has to inoculate children against antisemitism and other interethnic bigotry.You will have the best experience if you view this episode as a video on my Substack page: https://shirabatya.substack.com/p/worldviews-and-the-pan-berkshireYou can also find links to the notes at https://www.jcob.org/re.htmlYou may not realise it, but nothing is more important in the fight against antisemitism and other inter-ethnic hatreds than good quality Religious Education (RE). No I am not exaggerating. Hatred thrives on a diet of ignorance. As I have argued elsewhere, Religious Education offers a far superior model for preventing hatred that is far more effective than what is often marketed as “diversity training.”Unfortunately, the integrity of RE is under threat, and this relates to a movement to decolonise the curriculum and problematise the concept of religion. This may be just an annoyance to larger religious communities, or those religions that are privileged to be allocated significant time in the classroom. However, to Jews it actually poses a danger to our safety. For us, not being understood has real life consequences.Today's episode is a recording of a video seminar I gave last Sunday about my recent experience in Berkshire, where a highly inappropriate Pan Berkshire Religious Education Syllabus was pushed through in the autumn.This included a shift in focus towards philosophy, viewing religious beliefs as propositions requiring evidence. The final draft also erased the word “Israel” (even the term “Children of Israel”). We were told that the problematic elements in this syllabus came from the new Religion and Worldviews framework, which, it is argued, is the new improved method of teaching RE.Since we were told that this syllabus came from Worldviews, I researched the history and philosophical underpinnings of the Worldviews Framework. I learned that this new approach to RE is based on a post-modern deconstruction of religion. This critique claims that the concepts of religion and of the religions are colonialist concepts based on power. Instead, religions are now to be viewed as “religious worldviews”, in a framework that is meant to reflect the diversity of lived experience as well as being more inclusive of nonreligious approaches to life such as Humanism.We are being told that the shift to Worldviews is necessary in order to free us of the “World Religions Paradigm”, a reductive framework that treated religions as self-contained, sometimes stagnant, belief systems. Of course this is false, as in recent years, RE teaching had made a very positive shift to the Believing/Behaving/Belonging (3B's) framework, which acknowledged that beliefs are just part of the picture in any religion, and that religious traditions are complex and inter-connected. By comparison with 3B's framework, Worldviews appears regressive, shifting the focus back to belief under the guise of “decolonising the curriculum.”Find the full video and notes here: https://shirabatya.substack.comTreating religions as worldviews creates serious challenges for the teaching of Judaism, as Judaism is not a set of viewpoints or beliefs but is founded primarily on identity and practice. In fact, a core aspect of Jewish theology is na'aseh venish'mah - the idea that we perform the commandments and through that we come to understand them and form a relationship with God. Belief is derivative, not primary.Far from being progressive, the worldviews framework is better understood to be a recolonisation of Judaism in the name of decolonisation.Other ethno-religions such as Hinduism and Sikhism are similarly threatened by this approach.Given the incompatibility between Worldviews and Judaism, how should Jews respond to this movement? Can it be stopped? How can we safeguard the coherent teaching of Judaism, which is so crucial in inoculating students against antisemitism? How can we respond to those who are inserting their political views into RE, taking advantage of the chaos that post-modern deconstruction leaves in its wake?I won't answer all of these questions, but I hope to clarify a very confusing landscape, so that we are better armed to respond coherently to this movement and expose its post-modern smoke and mirror tactics.You can find notes at https://www.jcob.org/re.html that parallel the presentation in the video above. You can listen the podcast while following the notes, or else watch the video. Unless you have very good knowledge of Judaism and the current RE world, I strongly advise you to avail yourself of one of these visual aids rather than just listening to the audio, particularly as I speak very fast at times and some material on the screen is not fully read out.If this video interests you, you will also want to listen to the previous podcast episode, which contains an interfaith panel discussion on how we can teach about our religions while resisting the temptation to persuade others that we have some sort of absolute truth.To find the full notes to accompany this video / podcast, click here: https://www.jcob.org/re.html.Thanks for reading Heterodox Jewish Woman! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.https://shirabatya.substack.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shirabatya.substack.com

Religions of the World: Questions, Challenges, and New Directions (Equinox Publishing, 2024) is a world religions textbook that provides a critical introduction to the social, political, and cultural interests that inform how people describe and identify with religion. One of its goals is to provide a sense of methodological transparency that few, if any, other textbooks today offer. The book opens with an Introduction that discusses contemporary methodological concerns in the study of religion, with special focus on the World Religions Paradigm. This is followed by ten (10) chapters, six (6) of which discuss a distinct religion and four (4) of which discuss regional traditions. This organization is intentional and self-conscious, as the authors discuss how these scholarly categories (distinct tradition vs. regional tradition) shape the ways that both insiders and outsiders discuss, practice, and engage religion in their daily lives. Leslie Dorrough Smith is Professor of Religious Studies at Avila University and a member of the Women's and Gender Studies faculty. She is the author of Righteous Rhetoric: Sex, Speech, and the Politics of Concerned Women for America (2014) and Compromising Positions Sex Scandals, Politics, and American Christianity (2019). Steven W. Ramey is Chair and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, where he also directs the Asian Studies Program. He is the author of Hindu Sufi or Sikh: Contested Practices and Identifications of Sindhi Hindus in India and Beyond (2008) and has edited many volumes, including most recently Hinduism in 5 Minutes (2022). This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Religions of the World: Questions, Challenges, and New Directions (Equinox Publishing, 2024) is a world religions textbook that provides a critical introduction to the social, political, and cultural interests that inform how people describe and identify with religion. One of its goals is to provide a sense of methodological transparency that few, if any, other textbooks today offer. The book opens with an Introduction that discusses contemporary methodological concerns in the study of religion, with special focus on the World Religions Paradigm. This is followed by ten (10) chapters, six (6) of which discuss a distinct religion and four (4) of which discuss regional traditions. This organization is intentional and self-conscious, as the authors discuss how these scholarly categories (distinct tradition vs. regional tradition) shape the ways that both insiders and outsiders discuss, practice, and engage religion in their daily lives. Leslie Dorrough Smith is Professor of Religious Studies at Avila University and a member of the Women's and Gender Studies faculty. She is the author of Righteous Rhetoric: Sex, Speech, and the Politics of Concerned Women for America (2014) and Compromising Positions Sex Scandals, Politics, and American Christianity (2019). Steven W. Ramey is Chair and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, where he also directs the Asian Studies Program. He is the author of Hindu Sufi or Sikh: Contested Practices and Identifications of Sindhi Hindus in India and Beyond (2008) and has edited many volumes, including most recently Hinduism in 5 Minutes (2022). This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

**THIS IS A RE-RELEASE, NERDS!!!***Let's see what the World Religions Paradigm looks like when we talk curating religion with Dr. Andrew Aghapour.As always, be sure to visit keepingit101.com for full show notes, homework, transcripts, & more! 

This week, Aled Thomas and Vivian Asimos return to Star Trek for an episode breakdown. This time, it's the Original Series, season 2, episode 2 called “Who Mourns for Adonis?” And ooo boy is there loads to unpack in this one. We talk about E.B Tylor and his idea of religion and myth and the impact this has on popular conceptions of religion. We also talk about the World Religions Paradigm, and how this erases so many wonderful religions which exist. And Vivian tries really hard to not go on a feminist rampage about the representation of women. Follow Aled on twitter: @aledjllthomasFollow Vivian on twitter: @vivianasimosTell us your thoughts, send us your questions. Follow us on twitter @RPC_PodOr send us an email at: religionpopculture@gmail.com

Let's see what the World Religions Paradigm looks like when we talk curating religion with Dr. Andrew Aghapour. As always, be sure to visit keepingit101.com for full show notes, homework, transcripts, & more! 

This RSP Remix answers the question "What is the world religions paradigm?" with an abridged version of our 2013 interview with James Cox.

I sat down with Michael Graziano to talk about his book Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors which investigates the dangers and delusions that ensued from the religious world-views of the early moulders of the CIA. We discuss how the religious studies of the time (both in the academy and in popular culture) shaped the CIA's view of and approach to religion - particularly the developing World Religions Paradigm. Along the way we discuss American exceptionalism, shifting attitudes to Catholicism, and the strongly held belief within the CIA that a religious person would always, ultimately, side with the good ol' USofA. Buy the bookMichael Graziano is Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Northern Iowa. His research focuses on the relationship between religion, law, and government in the United States. In particular, how the U.S. government decides what counts as “religious,” and how it chooses to engage religious people, ideas, and institutions. Visit his websiteFind more episodesFollow the show: @RinseRepeatPod // Follow me: @liammiller87

When undergraduate students look through a course catalog and see the title World Religions they probably have some idea what the course will be about. But why is that? Why do World Religions seem so self-evident in this historical moment? In After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Routledge, 2016), edited by Christopher R. Cotter, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, and David G. Robertson, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, several authors attempt to delineate the history and engage with the problems of the World Religions paradigm. The history of the production of the category religion has defined the concept as a universal sui generis entity. This system of classification was bound up in scientism, evolutionary thinking, colonial encounters, and Protestant biases. The World Religions Paradigm extends from this model and has governed both research and teaching in Religious Studies. The essays in After World Religions offer strategies to interrogate or subvert the World Religions Paradigm from within, how to approach introductory courses in the study of religion outside of this governing structure, and the role of emergent pedagogical techniques. In our conversation we discussed the history of religion, textbooks as data, navigating graduate instruction, questions of the sacred, archeological data, new age stuff, critical thinking as opposed to the accumulation of information, the destabilizing effects of alternative data, the planet Pluto, and another podcast, the wonderful Religious Studies Project. Kristian Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is the author of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab (Oxford University Press, 2017). He is currently working on a monograph entitled The Cinematic Lives of Muslims, and is the editor of the forthcoming volumes Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (ILEX Foundation) and New Approaches to Islam in Film (Routledge). You can find out more about his work on his website, follow him on Twitter @BabaKristian, or email him at kjpetersen@unomaha.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When undergraduate students look through a course catalog and see the title World Religions they probably have some idea what the course will be about. But why is that? Why do World Religions seem so self-evident in this historical moment? In After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Routledge, 2016), edited by Christopher R. Cotter, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, and David G. Robertson, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, several authors attempt to delineate the history and engage with the problems of the World Religions paradigm. The history of the production of the category religion has defined the concept as a universal sui generis entity. This system of classification was bound up in scientism, evolutionary thinking, colonial encounters, and Protestant biases. The World Religions Paradigm extends from this model and has governed both research and teaching in Religious Studies. The essays in After World Religions offer strategies to interrogate or subvert the World Religions Paradigm from within, how to approach introductory courses in the study of religion outside of this governing structure, and the role of emergent pedagogical techniques. In our conversation we discussed the history of religion, textbooks as data, navigating graduate instruction, questions of the sacred, archeological data, new age stuff, critical thinking as opposed to the accumulation of information, the destabilizing effects of alternative data, the planet Pluto, and another podcast, the wonderful Religious Studies Project. Kristian Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is the author of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab (Oxford University Press, 2017). He is currently working on a monograph entitled The Cinematic Lives of Muslims, and is the editor of the forthcoming volumes Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (ILEX Foundation) and New Approaches to Islam in Film (Routledge). You can find out more about his work on his website, follow him on Twitter @BabaKristian, or email him at kjpetersen@unomaha.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When undergraduate students look through a course catalog and see the title World Religions they probably have some idea what the course will be about. But why is that? Why do World Religions seem so self-evident in this historical moment? In After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Routledge, 2016), edited by Christopher R. Cotter, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, and David G. Robertson, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, several authors attempt to delineate the history and engage with the problems of the World Religions paradigm. The history of the production of the category religion has defined the concept as a universal sui generis entity. This system of classification was bound up in scientism, evolutionary thinking, colonial encounters, and Protestant biases. The World Religions Paradigm extends from this model and has governed both research and teaching in Religious Studies. The essays in After World Religions offer strategies to interrogate or subvert the World Religions Paradigm from within, how to approach introductory courses in the study of religion outside of this governing structure, and the role of emergent pedagogical techniques. In our conversation we discussed the history of religion, textbooks as data, navigating graduate instruction, questions of the sacred, archeological data, new age stuff, critical thinking as opposed to the accumulation of information, the destabilizing effects of alternative data, the planet Pluto, and another podcast, the wonderful Religious Studies Project. Kristian Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is the author of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab (Oxford University Press, 2017). He is currently working on a monograph entitled The Cinematic Lives of Muslims, and is the editor of the forthcoming volumes Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (ILEX Foundation) and New Approaches to Islam in Film (Routledge). You can find out more about his work on his website, follow him on Twitter @BabaKristian, or email him at kjpetersen@unomaha.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When undergraduate students look through a course catalog and see the title World Religions they probably have some idea what the course will be about. But why is that? Why do World Religions seem so self-evident in this historical moment? In After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Routledge, 2016), edited by Christopher R. Cotter, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, and David G. Robertson, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, several authors attempt to delineate the history and engage with the problems of the World Religions paradigm. The history of the production of the category religion has defined the concept as a universal sui generis entity. This system of classification was bound up in scientism, evolutionary thinking, colonial encounters, and Protestant biases. The World Religions Paradigm extends from this model and has governed both research and teaching in Religious Studies. The essays in After World Religions offer strategies to interrogate or subvert the World Religions Paradigm from within, how to approach introductory courses in the study of religion outside of this governing structure, and the role of emergent pedagogical techniques. In our conversation we discussed the history of religion, textbooks as data, navigating graduate instruction, questions of the sacred, archeological data, new age stuff, critical thinking as opposed to the accumulation of information, the destabilizing effects of alternative data, the planet Pluto, and another podcast, the wonderful Religious Studies Project. Kristian Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is the author of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab (Oxford University Press, 2017). He is currently working on a monograph entitled The Cinematic Lives of Muslims, and is the editor of the forthcoming volumes Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (ILEX Foundation) and New Approaches to Islam in Film (Routledge). You can find out more about his work on his website, follow him on Twitter @BabaKristian, or email him at kjpetersen@unomaha.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When undergraduate students look through a course catalog and see the title World Religions they probably have some idea what the course will be about. But why is that? Why do World Religions seem so self-evident in this historical moment? In After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Routledge, 2016), edited by Christopher R. Cotter, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, and David G. Robertson, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, several authors attempt to delineate the history and engage with the problems of the World Religions paradigm. The history of the production of the category religion has defined the concept as a universal sui generis entity. This system of classification was bound up in scientism, evolutionary thinking, colonial encounters, and Protestant biases. The World Religions Paradigm extends from this model and has governed both research and teaching in Religious Studies. The essays in After World Religions offer strategies to interrogate or subvert the World Religions Paradigm from within, how to approach introductory courses in the study of religion outside of this governing structure, and the role of emergent pedagogical techniques. In our conversation we discussed the history of religion, textbooks as data, navigating graduate instruction, questions of the sacred, archeological data, new age stuff, critical thinking as opposed to the accumulation of information, the destabilizing effects of alternative data, the planet Pluto, and another podcast, the wonderful Religious Studies Project. Kristian Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is the author of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab (Oxford University Press, 2017). He is currently working on a monograph entitled The Cinematic Lives of Muslims, and is the editor of the forthcoming volumes Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (ILEX Foundation) and New Approaches to Islam in Film (Routledge). You can find out more about his work on his website, follow him on Twitter @BabaKristian, or email him at kjpetersen@unomaha.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When undergraduate students look through a course catalog and see the title World Religions they probably have some idea what the course will be about. But why is that? Why do World Religions seem so self-evident in this historical moment? In After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Routledge, 2016), edited by Christopher R. Cotter, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, and David G. Robertson, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, several authors attempt to delineate the history and engage with the problems of the World Religions paradigm. The history of the production of the category religion has defined the concept as a universal sui generis entity. This system of classification was bound up in scientism, evolutionary thinking, colonial encounters, and Protestant biases. The World Religions Paradigm extends from this model and has governed both research and teaching in Religious Studies. The essays in After World Religions offer strategies to interrogate or subvert the World Religions Paradigm from within, how to approach introductory courses in the study of religion outside of this governing structure, and the role of emergent pedagogical techniques. In our conversation we discussed the history of religion, textbooks as data, navigating graduate instruction, questions of the sacred, archeological data, new age stuff, critical thinking as opposed to the accumulation of information, the destabilizing effects of alternative data, the planet Pluto, and another podcast, the wonderful Religious Studies Project. Kristian Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is the author of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab (Oxford University Press, 2017). He is currently working on a monograph entitled The Cinematic Lives of Muslims, and is the editor of the forthcoming volumes Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (ILEX Foundation) and New Approaches to Islam in Film (Routledge). You can find out more about his work on his website, follow him on Twitter @BabaKristian, or email him at kjpetersen@unomaha.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discussion starts with the entanglement of the concepts 'religion' and 'secularism', a brief discussion of the problems associated with the World Religions Paradigm, and then moves to the pedagogical merits and challenges of teaching 'secularism/s' within a World Religions model. We hope you enjoy this experiment!