Multifaith Matters

Greater attention is needed to various concepts in the study of religion that may be assumed to be settled, but in reality need to be contested. George Chryssides discusses this in this episode, including concepts like “religion,” “world religion,” “cult,” and “new religious movement.” Chryssides is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at York St. John University, UK. His books include The Bloomsbury Handbook to Studying Christians, Historical Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses second edition, Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and Change, The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements, and he is co-editor with Amy R. Whitehead of Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion. Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion: A Critical Exploration (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023) https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/contested-concepts-in-the-study-of-religion-9781350243804/ George D. Chryssides: https://yorksj.academia.edu/GeorgeChryssides Amy R. Whitehead: https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=950550 Book launch Contested Concepts contributor discussion hosted by INFORM: https://youtu.be/U3QcYvuFknY You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead #religion #religiousstudies #GeorgeChryssides

How might a member of a minority religion feel about aggressive Christian preaching at their sacred venues? Can such evangelistic efforts function in ways that restrict the religious freedoms of others? Heron Michelle, a Pagan, shares her perspective resulting from interactions with a street preacher outsider her business. Heron (Greenville, NC) is a witch, priestess, artist, and mom. She is the founding high priestess of the Sojo Circle Coven, and she created a training program in modern witchcraft, which she’s taught year-round since 2010. Heron is the owner of the Sojourner Whole Earth Provisions metaphysical shop, and she’s a Reiki master, tarot reader, and clairvoyant. She writes the blog Witch on Fire at Patheos Pagan, and she regularly lectures at local universities, festivals, and conferences. Heron Michelle’s website Witch on Fire blog Video of Heron talking to EC Street Preacher “Pagan ‘metaphysical shops navigate threats from Christian critics” at RN “Christian groups step up harassment of pagan festivals” at RNS For more on a respectful and informed Pagan-Christian dialogue see the book Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue by Philip Johnson and Gus diZerega (Lion, 2008). You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead #Paganism #religiousfreedom #evangelism

April 19, 2023 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the fire which ended the standoff between federal agents and members of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Much has been learned about this tragedy over the last few decades, and it continues to be relevant to events in politics and religion. Catherine Wessinger is our guest sharing her expertise in this area. Catherine Wessinger is the Rev. H. James Yamauchi, S.J. Professor of the History of Religions at Loyola University New Orleans. She is the author of How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate (2000); editor of Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases (2000); editor of The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism (2011); editor of three Branch Davidian survivor autobiographies for Bonnie Haldeman (David Koresh’s mother), Sheila Martin, and Clive Doyle. She has served as a co-general editor of Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions since 2000.   She has written a number of book chapters and a journal article on the Branch Davidians-federal agents conflict outside Waco, Texas. Among the most significant is the 2009 journal article, “Deaths in the Fire at the Branch Davidians’ Mount Carmel: Who Bears Responsibility?” in Nova Religio; and a chapter titled, “The FBI’s ‘Cult War’ against the Branch Davidians,” in the 2017 edited volume,The FBI and Religion.   Her YouTube channel—https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead

Ida Glaser leads the Reading the Bible in the Context of Islam project at the Center for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford, UK, and is the Director of Center for Muslim and Christian Studies, Houston, TX. She also overseas the International Partnership and the Langham Bible Commentaries from Muslim Contexts project on behalf of the Solomon Academic Trust. Previously she taught in the areas of Qur'an and Bible and History of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue at the University of Edinburgh. Center for Muslim-Christian Studies, UK: https://www.cmcsoxford.org.uk/about-us/our-team/publications-ida-glaser Center for Muslim-Christian Studies, Houston: https://www.cmcshouston.org/ Thinking Biblically about Islam: Genesis, Transfiguration, Transformation (London: Langham, 2016) (With Hannah Kay): https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Biblically-about-Islam-Transfiguration/dp/1839731915/ Routledge Reading the Bible in Islamic Context Series: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Biblical-Interpretation-in-Islamic-Context-Series/book-series/RBIIC The Bible and Other Faiths: what does the Lord require of us? (Leicester: IVP, 2005): https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Other-Faiths-Require-Christian/dp/1907713050/ You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead #IdaGlaser #Islam #Quran #Bible

Today's cosmopolitan, multicultural, and multifaith environments call for new approaches to apologetics. In order to free Christian apologetics from dominant Western habits of mind ill-suited to interreligious dialogue, we must listen and speak with both humility and confidence. In their book Humble Confidence: A Model for Interfaith Apologetics, Benno van den Toren and Kang-San Tan provide a global, intercultural introduction to Christian apologetics. Building on recent developments in apologetics and missiology, as well as their experience teaching internationally in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Van den Toren and Tan offer an approach that is conversational, patient, holistic, and embodied. Benno van den Toren unpacks this in our conversation. Benno van den Toren (PhD, Theological University in Kampen) is professor of intercultural theology at the Protestant Theological University in Groningen, the Netherlands. He has taught in French-speaking Africa and at Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University, and his books include Christian Apologetics as Cross-Cultural Dialogue and Reasons for My Hope: Responding to Non-Christian Friends. Benno van den Toren: https://www.pthu.nl/en/about-us/people/b.vandentoren/ Humble Confidence: A Model for Interfaith Apologetics: https://www.amazon.com/Humble-Confidence-Model-Interfaith-Apologetics/dp/0830852948/ You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead #BennovandenTorren #KangsanTan #interfaith #apologetics

Dr. Jack Hunter provides an anthropological perspective on the paranormal. Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of ecology, religion and the paranormal. He lives in the hills of Mid-Wales with his family. He is an Honorary Research Fellow with the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and a Research Fellow with the Parapsychology Foundation, New York. He is the founder and editor of Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal, the author of Spirits, Gods and Magic: An Introduction to the Anthropology of the Supernatural (2019) and Engaging the Anomalous (2018). He is the editor of Strange Dimensions: A Paranthropology Anthology (2015), Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore and the Paranormal (2016), and is co-editor with Dr. David Luke of Talking With the Spirits: Ethnographies from Between the Worlds (2014). To find out more about his work visit www.jack-hunter.webstarts.com. Deep Weird: The Varieties of High Strangeness Experience: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Weird-Varieties-Strangeness-Experience/dp/1786772248/ Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore, and the Paranormal: https://www.amazon.com/Damned-Facts-Religion-Folklore-Paranormal-ebook/dp/B01BRL7UUS/ Jack Hunter's Deep Weird Dialogues: https://www.youtube.com/@Discarnates You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead  #paranormal #JackHunter

Moral theology provides a helpful but often neglected avenue for multifaith engagement beyond Christian emphasis upon evangelism and apologetics. James Keenan discusses the New Testament's teaching on virtue ethics, particularly humility and love, and how these can be practiced in multifaith contexts. Keenan is Vice Provost for Global Engagement and Canisius Professor, Director of The Jesuit Institute at Boston College. He is the author of several books, including one related to this conversation, Jesus and Virtue Ethics: Building Bridges Between New Testament Studies and Moral Theology, which he co-authored with Daniel Harrington.  James Keenan: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/theology/people/faculty-directory/james-keenan-sj.html Jesus and Virtue Ethics: https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Virtue-Ethics-Building-Testament/dp/0742549941/ You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead  #moraltheology #virtueethics #NewTestamentStudies #JamesKeenan #multifaith

One of world's leading experts on contemporary atheism and nonreligiosity, sociologist and theologian Stephen Bullivant draws on dozens of interviews, original analysis of high-quality survey data, and a wealth of cutting-edge studies, to present an entertaining and insightful exploration of America's ex-religious landscape. Bullivant holds professorial positions at St. Mary’s University, London, and the University of Notre Dame, Sydney. He has doctorates in theology and sociology. His studies of contemporary nonreligiosity have received wide international coverage, including from the BBC, New York Times, Economist, Financial Times and Der Speigel. In this episode we are discussing his book Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America (OUP, 2022). Stephen Bullivant: https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/staff-directory/stephen-bullivant Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America:  https://www.amazon.com/Nonverts-Ex-Christian-America-Stephen-Bullivant/dp/0197587445/   You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead #Nones #Nonverts #StephenBullivant #atheism

What fresh possibilities open up with a narrative-historical approach to the Bible? Andrew Perriman discusses this in light of the gospel, salvation, hell, and then connecting dots to multifaith encounters. Perriman lives in London, UK. He is the author of several books, including Re: Mission: A Vision of Hope for a Post-Eschatological Church; The Future of the People of God: Reading Romans Before and After Western Christendom; End of Story: Same-Sex Relationships and the Narratives of Evangelical Mission; and his latest volume In the Form of a God: The Pre-existence of the Exalted Christ in Paul. He also published a collection of blog posts on hell and heaven called Hell and Heaven in Narrative Perspective. Andrew Perriman's blog P.OST: https://www.postost.net/2008/10/about-me You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead #AndrewPerriman #narrativehistorical #gospel #soteriology #hell #multifaith

Mohammed Dajani addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dajani is a Jerusalem-born scholar and peace activist who holds two doctorate degrees. He is Founder of the Wasatia Islamic moderate movement in Palestine which he created in 2007 to promote moderation and reconciliation, peace, tolerance, and justice. He is Founder and Director of Wasatia Graduate Academic Institute. Wasatia: http://www.wasatiamovement.com/ Our prior podcasts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Daniel Bar-Tal on the psychology of the conflict: https://youtu.be/wXf3itk4fSo Munther Isaac and a Palestinian Christian perspective: https://youtu.be/RGxM2yegaHk You can listen to Multifaith Matters on your favorite podcast platform, including Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeart Radio. Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org. Support this work: One-time donation: https://multifaithmatters.org/donate Become my patron: https://patron.podbean.com/johnwmorehead  #MohammedDajani #WasatiaMovement #IsraeliPalestinianConflict